控股股东应把握总经理任命权

　　For a company,the position of the general manager is very important.The general manager is responsible for the daily operations of a company as well as enforcement of important decisions of board of directors or the shareholders’meeting.The general manager is to be vested a large scope of powers to oversee the operation of the company,including having access to top secrets of the company,deciding the employment and assessment of employees of the company and enacting and enforcing corporate budgets.If a general manager embezzles the funds,involves in corruption or abuses his power for personal interest,v it might cause great harms to the company.Therefore,the powers to appoint or dismiss a general manager is one of the essential powers with respect to a company.When the founders of a start-up are not aware of such an issue,they might easily fail to seize this power and then subsequently lose control of the corporate affairs.

 

　　对于一家公司而言，总经理的位置可谓至关重要。总经理负责公司的日常营运，也负责执行董事会或者股东会的重要决议。总经理被授予一系列重要职权，包括监督公司运作，掌握公司核心机密，决定雇员的雇佣和考核，制定和执行预算等。如果总经理挪用资金、涉嫌贪腐或者滥用职权以实现个人利益，将会给公司造成重大损害。因此，任免总经理的权力是公司核心权力之一。如果创业公司的创始人不了解这个问题，将会轻易失去此一重要权力，从而也就顺带失去了公司的控制权。

 

　　Zhang and friends set up a start-up“Star Plan”,while he holds 51%of total shares and other founders hold the remaining 49%.Mao was appointed as the general manager of the company,whose nomination was approved by all founder unanimously.At the beginning,Mao worked very hard to improve the performance of the company,making the shareholders rather pleased.However,when time went by,Zhang found that Mao became more and more reluctant to enforce the decisions made by the shareholders’meeting and board of directors.He then entrusted an investigation agency to investigation what was going on with Mao,and to his surprise,Mao registered another company and transferred a large proportion of the Star Plan’s technology,funds and employees into the latter company.The new company has been a competitive one in the same area to take away a large proportion of stakes of market from what originally belonged to Star Plan.

 

　　张某和朋友们共同成立了一家新创公司“星计划”，他本人拥有51%的股权而其他创始者拥有剩余的49%股权。毛某被任命为公司总经理，他的任命得到了所有创始者的一致同意。一开始，毛某工作非常努力，不断提高公司业绩，让股东非常满意。然而，当时间逐渐过去，张某发现毛某越来越不愿意积极执行股东会或者董事会的决议，存在消极怠工现象。他于是委托了一家调查机构进行调查，最后惊讶地发现毛某注册成立了另一家公司，并将星计划公司很大一部分的技术、人员和资金注入这家公司。这家新公司已经成为相同领域内具有竞争力的公司，抢走了原本属于星计划公司很大一部分市场份额。

 

　　Zhang immediately summoned an interim shareholders’meeting,intended to dismiss the general manager.Corporate Law has defined appointment and dismissal of the general manager as one of significant issues of the company,and then requires no less than 2/3 of total voting rights to pass a relevant proposal.Although another friend supported Zhang’s proposal in the meeting,he only had 66%of shares supporting him,while 2/3 represents roughly 67.67%.Because the rules stipulating the minimum proportion of voting rights required to pass relevant resolution fall into the category of mandatory rules governing corporate affairs,he let it just slip away.

 

　　张某立即召开了股东会，目的是罢免总经理。公司法明确规定任命和罢免总经理属于公司重大事项，需要公司投票权的2/3以上才能通过。虽然他的一位朋友支持了他的动议，他也只拿到66%的支持票，而2/3大概等于67.67%。由于规定最低投票权比例的规定属于规定公司事务的强制性规则，张某提出的动议功败垂成。

 

　　In Nanjing Corporate Lawyer’s counseling service for the clients,we always find such a situation that shareholders,especially the controlling shareholder don’t have the perception of setting rules to take charge of appointment of key management of company.If they can perceive such issues earlier and consult the legal professionals,we can recommend many mechanisms to solve this problem.For example,we can set the controlling shareholder’s share at the proportion of more than 67.67%.If the funds he contributed does not satisfy such proportion,we can make special agreements and record in articles of association that he holds shares as agreed proportion,not directly correlated to the funds he contributed;or we can make agreements that the voting rights are not directly correlated to share proportions,and we can distribute the voting rights through consensus.The basic principle is that you should have controlling voting right of equivalent or more than 2/3.If due to different factors the mechanisms mentioned above can’t be completed,the controlling shareholder can also sign a agreement of persons acting in concert with other shareholders,stipulating that other shareholder must cast votes of same opinion with you in the shareholders’meeting,and if they reverse to do so,their votes shall be deemed as the same with the controlling shareholder’s vote when calculating the votes,thus creating a concerted proportion of voting rights,when you have signed such agreement with people whose shares plus your own shares exceed 2/3 of total shares,you will be essentially in charge of appointment and dismissal of key management.

 

　　在南京公司律师许光律师（电话微信同号17712855901）为客户提供咨询服务的过程中，我们发现股东们尤其是控股股东没有这种意识，即通过设立适当的规则以控制公司关键管理人员的任命。如果他们能够提早有这种意识并咨询专业法律人员，我们推荐很多机制解决这个问题。比如，我们可以将控股股东的持股比例设定为多于67.67%。如果控股股东所投入的资金并未达到这个比例，我们可以通过特别协议和设定公司章程，约定其持股比例和投入的出资比例不直接挂钩，持股比例为一致同意的比例。我们也可以通过特别协议约定，表决权和持股比例不直接挂钩，表决权可按照一致同意的比例进行分配。基本原则是控股股东要控制表决权的2/3以上。如果以上方式由于种种原因不能实现，控股股东还可以与其他股东签订一致行动协议，规定其他股东必须和控股股东做出意见相同表决，如其他股东做出相反表决，则在计票时应认定为与控股股东做出相同表决。通过这种方式，表决权得以统一行使，当控股股东和一致行动人的股权份额超过2/3时，控股股东就获得了任免重要管理人员的权力。