How Many Shares In a New Company?

Multiple Share Class Options

Alternatively, you may create different share classes for each of the owners. This means dividends can be issued to each shareholder separately without diluting ownership of the company (unless you adjust the rights of the shares)

Mr Smith – 1 x Ordinary Class A £1 share
Mrs Jones – 1 x Ordinary Class B £1 share

Or

Mr Smith – 50 x Ordinary Class A £1 shares
Mrs Jones – 50 x Ordinary Class B £1 shares

If the rights attached to each share are the same both shareholders own half the company.

You can split ownership if required by issuing different numbers of shares to different shareholders. If someone wants to maintain a majority holding you could issue shares with different percentages.

Mr Smith – 52 x Ordinary £1 shares
Mrs Jones – 24 x Ordinary £1 shares
Mrs Davis – 24 x Ordinary £1 shares

Or you could issue different names to the shares and issue different amounts.

Mr Smith – 52 x Ordinary Class A £1 shares
Mrs Jones – 24 x Ordinary Class B £1 shares
Mrs Davis – 24 x Ordinary Class C £1 shares

Using 100 shares is common practice when dividing ownership of a company amongst two or more shareholders. However, a company can have just one single share or it can issue thousands. You do not have to round numbers into tens or hundreds. A company can have just 2 or 3 shares issued or thousands of shares in many different classes.