S.p.A. (corporation)

Società per azioni (S.p.A.) is a form of corporation in Italy, meaning "company limited by shares" (although often translated as "", which may or may not be a limited liability entity). It was equivalent to S.A. or public limited company in other countries. However, local variances still existed.

The other common form of corporation in Italy was società a responsabilità limitata (literally limited company). S.p.A. issued shares (Italian: azioni), while in s.r.l., the unit was quote/stock of share capital. Moreover, the articles of association of s.r.l. allowed different allocation of profit and assets, which was more comparable to a limited partnership.

Banks are required to run as S.p.A. if their assets were more than a defined threshold since 2016. This saw Banco BPM, BPER Banca, UBI Banca, and the blue chips of the FTSE MIB Index demutualized from s.c.p.a. or s.c. a.r.l. and s.c. (co-operative company by shares, co-operative company with limited liabilities and co-operative company).

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