What is a partners’ agreement?

If you are going to establish a startup or are going to carry out a capital increase in an existing company, you need to know what a partners agreement< consists of. /strong>, what content they usually have and why they are useful.

The shareholders’ agreement can be defined as a private contract signed by all future or current partners of a commercial company, which regulates the obligations, the relationship between the partners, the rights and the rules of operation of the company. society.

In the case of business creation, shareholder agreements take on special importance since they can influence the success or failure of a company. For example, imagine that you create a company with three friends and one of them after three months wants to sell his shares or participations to a third person that the partners do not know. If there is a partners’ agreement, what happens in this type of situation can be regulated.

Therefore, signing a shareholders’ agreement is important at various times:

• At the time of constitution of a company .
• At the time when new members join.

The existence of the partners’ agreement not only guarantees the resolution of problems, but also that this is done quickly. This way it will be easier to attract investment partners.

8 basic contents of a partners’ agreement

A shareholders’ agreement can have very different types of agreements. In general, some of the most common agreements are the following:

• Functioning of the organization. This section will detail the functions of each partner, the position they hold, participation in profits or remuneration.
• Government of society. This section regulates the rules that will aim to resolve conflicts that represent a blockage when making decisions in the company’s governing bodies (Meeting of Shareholders or Board of Directors, if applicable). li>
• Permanence. To guarantee the continuity of the partnership, permanence clauses are usually agreed upon based on which each partner will undertake not to leave the partnership for a certain period of time.
• Non-compete. Another basic clause is non-competition, that is, that no partner engages in an activity by himself or in another company that is the direct competition of the company.
• Entry or exit of partners. The conditions under which each partner can leave the company or under which a new partner can enter can be regulated: right of preferential acquisition, regime for transferring shares or participations, acquisition and transfer. This pact is very important in the case of startups since the entry of investors into the share capital can be regulated.
• Confidentiality. It is essential that the partners undertake to maintain the confidentiality of the company’s reserved information.
• Union agreement. It means that a group of partners (for example, the founding partners) agree to vote in the same direction on a company matter.
• Non-aggression pact. This is an agreement that two or more partners can make by which they undertake not to make any decision in the company that could harm other partners who have signed the agreement.

Therefore, the objective of any shareholders’ agreement is the permanence of the company and the rapid resolution of conflicts, so that blockages do not occur that negatively affect its activity.