1 Legal forms of business entity

Figure 2 provides an overview of forms of business organisation differentiated in UK law. Among those, it more specifically indicates the types of company that this OpenLearn course deals with: private limited company and public limited company. Against a green background, the organisations that are the topic of this course are shown in yellow. The others are shown in grey. The main types of business organisation are: sole traders, partnerships, companies, unincorporated associations and trusts. Partnerships (grey) There are three types of partnership: general partnership, limited liability partnerships and limited partnerships. Companies (yellow) There are three types of company: chartered companies (grey), statutory companies (grey), and registered companies (yellow). There are three types of registered company: companies limited by shares (yellow), companies limited by guarantee which are private (grey), and unlimited companies which are private (grey). There are two type of company limited by shares: private limited companies (Ltd) (yellow) and public limited companies (plc) (yellow). A red line runs from business organisations to companies, to registered companies, to companies limited by shares, and finally to private and public limited companies.