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by calr 1188 days ago
When a company is nationalized what typically happens to the shareholders? Are they wiped, do they get paid out, or does some of their ownership carry over to the new entity (rights to a special dividend or something)?
4 comments

They would likely be wiped out in this scenario.

Note that long term shareholders have already been pretty much wiped out. CS was worth almost $300B before the GFC, and down 70x to around $8B Friday. Apparently UBS was uncomfortable offering more than $1B for it today, so already down a further 8x since then.

As the bank seems to be toast, the fair market price of their shares should be very close to zero. The shareholders are already fucked.
The article talks about "full or partial" nationalization. I have no idea how a full nationalization would look like, but typically, a company is only partially nationalized. The state takes a large equity stake, diluting the ownership of previous shareholders.
Current Shareholders are a rounding error, as bond holders with over $60 billion at risk are at risk of being bailed in as shareholders.