Shares outstanding 中文

outstanding shares翻译为“发行在外的股份”或“对外发行的股份”是正确的。为了理解这个词，需要理解与其相关的几个词：authorized shares(批准发行的股份）、issued shares（已发行股份）、outstanding shares （对外发行的股份）、treasry shares(库存股）、restricted shares（限制性股份）。批准发行的股份：一般公司章程中会载明一家公司被批准发行（核定）的股票。issued share已发行股份，是发行总额。outstanding shares 对外发行的股份，是股东目前持有的股份。股票的发行数量表示向股东出售的数量，在条件适当的时候，公司可能回购自己的股份，这部分回购股份不注销，叫做库存股（treasury shares），属于已发行股份的一部分。而股东手中实际拥有的股票数量表示发行在外的股份数量。所以，outstanding shares 翻译为“对外发行的股份”或“发行在外的股份”。用一个数学概念，可以很明了理解这三个概念，发行在外的股份是已发行股份的子集，已发行股份是批准发行的股份的子集。那outstanding shares 翻译为“对外发行的股份”，为何不可以翻译为“流通在外的股份”？这里可从outstanding shares 的定义看出，Shares outstanding refer to a company's stock currently held by all its shareholders, including share blocks held by institutional investors and restricted shares owned by the company’s officers and insiders，即outstanding shares 包括股东持有的股份和公司高管和内部人员所持有的限制性股票。那什么又是限制性股票呢？Restricted stock refers to unregistered shares of ownership in a corporation that are issued to corporate affiliates, such as executives and directors. Restricted stock is nontransferable and must be traded in compliance with special Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regulations. 限制性股票不能转让，必须符合SEC规定，所以outstanding shares翻译为“流通在外的股份”不是很准确，还包括不能转让的限制性股票。有些法律文件，将issued and outstanding shares翻译为“发行在外的股份”，这是因为，如果文件里的这家公司未有库存股或回购股份计划，可以把issued and outstanding shares翻译为“已发行在外的股份”。一般在章程文件里，会有authorized shares,issued shares ,treasury shares 的信息，当看到no treasury shares等的信息，应理解到其相关联的信息。

outstanding shares的outstanding，看到翻法主要有三个：已发行的，发行在外的，流通在外的。那么，哪个才是对的？还是都对的？

毋庸置疑，issued shares是“已发行股份”。我们通常会看到issued and outstanding shares，能否就翻为“已发行股份”呢？

Issued shares are the number of shares the company has issued to its shareholders.

Outstanding shares are the number of shares that the shareholders own (that is, the number of shares outstanding in the hands of the shareholders). Outstanding shares are issued shares minus treasury shares. (Excerpt from ACCA F7 Financial reporting)

issued shares=outstanding shares+treasury shares 这个很好理解，公司向股东发行（issue）股份后就是发行在外（outstanding）的状态了，然后公司回购了一部分的股份。这部分回购的股份就叫“库存股”（treasury shares），只要没注销，还是属于已发行股份的一部分。所以outstanding shares不适合翻译为“已发行股份”，它是已发行股份的一部分。

(Investopedia) Outstanding shares refer to a company's stock currently held by all its shareholders, including share blocks held by institutional investors and restricted shares owned by the company’s officers and insiders.

(Investpedia) Restricted shares refer to shares of stock whose sale or acquisition is subject to specific restrictions laid out by the issuing company and agreed upon by the eventual owner of the restricted shares. This means that the restricted shares issued by a company are not fully transferable to the person receiving the stock until certain conditions or restrictions are met.
Once the restrictions or conditions have been satisfied, the stock is no longer restricted and can be transferred to the intended person receiving the stock. These restricted shares are normally used to offer employees alternative compensation beyond their salaries.

Outstanding shares不仅包括股东所持有的股份，也包括公司高管和内部人员所持有的限制性股票（restricted shares）。限制性股票和股票期权一样，用于员工持股计划，规定员工满足公司一定条件如服务期限后可授予，或者在IPO之后有一段时间的锁定期，我国还明确规定了禁售期。作为oustanding shares的一部分, restricted shares在解禁前是不能转让流通的。

Outstanding shares可以指普通股，也可以指优先股。在A轮优先股购买协议（NVCA风险投资协议之一）中，就说明了outstanding preferred shares是美国证券法所规定的restricted securities，在未向SEC登记或获得登记豁免前是不能转让的，购买人必须一直持有：

The Purchaser understands that the Shares are “restricted securities” under applicable U.S. federal and state securities laws and that, pursuant to these laws, the Purchaser must hold the Shares indefinitely unless they are registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission and qualified by state authorities, or an exemption from such registration and qualification requirements is available.

因此，outstanding shares翻为“流通在外的”是不适宜的，它还包括了不能流通或转让的restricted shares、restricted securities、outstanding preferred shares等。另外，outstanding shares万万不能翻为“流通股”，流通股是指上市公司可在证券交易所上市流通的股票（listed shares）。

总结：issued shares（已发行股份）=outstanding shares（发行在外的股份）+treasury shares（库存股）

严格意义来讲，以上是正确翻法。但如果不是特别强调专业性或者在特定情况下是可以混用的。

混用一，如果一家公司未有库存股或回购股份计划，在对该公司情况做翻译时，可混用outstanding shares与issued shares，即翻为“已发行股份”或者“发行在外的股份”。

混用二，outstanding common shares在上市公司年报中，可翻为“发行在外普通股”（最常用）和“流通在外普通股”，是一个意思。一是因为上市公司的股票大都可在证券交易所上市交易的，二是在计算每股收益时，限制性股票是归为“潜在普通股”，从发行在外普通股中剔除的，三是国内教材已汉化的叫法不统一，CPA会计用的是“发行在外普通股”，而CPA财务成本管理用的是“流通在外普通股”。但若翻译的是非上市公司的英文资料，outstanding仍是不适宜翻为“流通在外的”。

作者：潘茹珺 Stephanie Pan，法律财经翻译

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