TABLE OF CONTENTS


Overview


Share classes are different types of ownership or control within a company, most often seen in private companies. Different share classes can give individuals different levels of power, such as additional voting rights, or fewer. Recording share classes gives you a more accurate picture of ownership when equity and voting rights differ, since this often changes who qualifies as a UBO.


Why this matters

  • Some shareholders may have high voting rights with low equity.
  • Some may hold non-voting shares.
  • Multi-class structures often change who qualifies as a UBO.
  • Accurate voting information improves threshold logic and UBO decisions.

Note: where an entity has only one share class, for example Ordinary shares, First AML automatically applies a default of one share to one vote, to simplify the UBO calculation.


How share class information is populated


Where First AML has a direct integration with a company register (for example, the UK companies register or an equivalent local document), share class details are pulled automatically from the confirmation statement or equivalent filing.


Select an entity in the structure to see:

  • The share class or classes it holds, for example C2 and C3.
  • How many shares of that class it owns in the root company.
  • Whether the class carries voting rights, and how many votes per share.
  • Its relationship to the root entity, for example Control.
  • Its overall shareholding percentage.


Adding or editing share class information manually


If you're working from incorporation documents, or have additional information about an entity's shares that wasn't extracted automatically, you can add it yourself:

  1. Select the entity.
  2. Add any additional relationship types that apply, for example PSC, general partner, or guarantor.
  3. Add any additional share classes, along with the shares owned, voting rights, and votes per share.
  4. Select Update entity to save your changes.


You can return to edit this information at any time.


How share classes affect UBO calculations


Once share class and voting information is recorded, it feeds directly into your UBO Rules and Auto-Unwrap calculations.


For example, if your UBO threshold is set to 25%, the calculation flags anyone who holds 25% or more of either:

  • Shareholding (equity), or
  • Voting rights,

since voting rights signify control, which is part of the beneficial ownership definition. Ownership propagation also respects these individual voting and equity values, and UBO Rules and Auto-Unwrap always use the correct rights for their calculations.



How First AML extracts and displays share class details, and how to add or edit them manually.


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