A dual-listed company or DLC is a corporate structure which involves two listed companies with different sets of shareholders sharing ownership of one set operational businesses.

In a conventional takeover one business acquires the shares of another. When a DLC is created, both companies continue to exist, and to have separate bodies of shareholders, but they agree to share all the risks and rewards of the ownership of all their operating businesses in a fixed proportion. This will be arranged through a complex set of contracts. Usually the two companies will share a single board of directors and have an integrated management structure.

In virtually all cases the two companies are listed in different countries. There are often tax reasons for companies from different juristictions to choose DLC status, and once they have done so there can be major tax obstacles to cancelling the arrangement. Issues of national pride may sometimes also be involved; where both parties to a proposed merger or takeover are in a strong position and don't need to merge or accept a takeover, it can be easier to push it through it the country with the smaller business won't be "losing" its corporation.

Examples

Some major dual-listed companies are listed below. One feature of note is that most leading dual listed companies are part British.

• BHP Billiton
• Brambles Industries
• Carnival Corporation & Plc
• Reed Elsevier
• Rio Tinto
• Royal Dutch/Shell - which is cancelling its DLC status in 2005
• Unilever

Companies which are listed on more than one stock exchange

Many companies are listed on more than one stock exhange. Usually the shares on each exchange are all in the same company, and this is not the same as being a dual-listed company. The term co-listing is often used in this context. Generally such a company's primary listing is on a stock exchange in its country of incorporation, and its secondary listing(s) is on an exchange in another country.