We call company to any type of organization or organized human institution, whose activities pursue commercial or economic purposes by satisfying the needs of goods and / or services of a specific community, which may well be individuals, other companies or state institutions. For instance: Petrobras, Microsoft, Iberia.
According to their shareholding constitution and the origin of their capital, they may have a profile more or less doomed to profit or to the policies of a government project. Accordingly, they can be classified as:
- Private businesses. Constituted by private capital, either from a single owner or from a conglomerate of shareholders. Profitability and profit are often your top priorities.
- Public enterprises. The State is the owner or in any case the majority shareholder. They tend to pursue social purposes over profit or, in extreme cases, even profitability. They should not be confused with public spending by state institutions.
- Mixed or semi-private companies. Its capital comes from both the private and state sectors, in proportions that do not allow public control of the company, but do guarantee certain subsidies.
Examples of public companies
- Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA). It is an oil exploitation company (one of the main in Latin America) owned 100% by the Venezuelan State.
- Argentinian airlines. An airline owned by the Argentine State, whose rates are usually accessible to the population, while remaining competitive in the international market.
- Petrobras. Brazil’s leading oil and natural gas company, also publicly owned.
- Statoil. Norwegian state oil company, one of the main in the Scandinavian market.
- Bank of Madrid. Caja de Ahorros and Monte Piedad de Madrid, the oldest of the savings banks in Spain.
- Spanish Radio and Television Corporation (RTVE). It is a state trading company that controls the indirect management of the Spanish radioelectric spectrum.
- Fiscal Oil Fields (YPF). Argentine state company of the hydrocarbons branch.
- Infonavit. Institute of the National Housing Fund for Workers, a Mexican state institution, which finances housing for workers and provides revenues to the public savings fund for pension management.
- Chilean Port Company (EMPORCHI). Company that until 1998 operated as the administrator of the property, maintenance and exploitation of Chilean ports.
- Nippon Hoso Kyokai (NHK). Japan Broadcasting Corporation, the best known of the public broadcasters in the Japanese country.
Examples of private companies
- Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA). It is a Spanish banking transnational, with enormous influence on financial operations in Latin America and the second largest Spanish company by volume of assets.
- Eastman Kodak Company. A legendary American transnational company, dedicated to the production of photographic material: cameras, accessories and equipment of all kinds.
- Panamanian Aviation Company (Copa Airlines). In a strategic alliance with the North American United Airlines, it is one of the main private airlines in South America.
- Hewlett Packard. Created in 1939 and known as HP, it is a North American computer products company, one of the largest in the world.
- Microsoft. The American software colossus, along with its president Bill Gates, has the reputation of being a ruthless and monopolistic company.
- Nokia. Finnish communications and technology corporation, one of the most powerful and well-known in the industry.
- Polar Food and Companies. Venezuelan company dedicated to the branch of the brewery and the production of food from corn and other raw materials.
- Clarín Group. Argentine multimedia company, considered the largest and most powerful journalistic conglomerate in the country, as well as one of the largest in the Hispanic world.
- Nintendo Company Limited. A multinational video game company of Japanese origin, founded in 1889 and the largest in the world market.
- Volkswagen. German company in the automotive sector and one of the largest in Europe, largest in the country and one of the main in the world.
Examples of joint ventures
- Credicoop Operative Bank. An Argentine private bank with entirely national capital, it is the main cooperative bank in Latin America.
- Iberia. The Spanish airline par excellence, it was founded in 1985 with mostly public capital, although the passage of time has been privatizing it.
- Red Eléctrica de España. The large Spanish energy seller retains 20% of public shares and the rest are private.
- Agroindustrias Inca Peru EIRL. Andean company dedicated to the production of olives and frozen vegetables.
- Acandí Public Services Administration Mixed Company. Colombian company for waste disposal and sewage sanitation.
- Mixed Companies of the Orinoco Oil Belt. Venezuelan consortium created between the State and various transnational companies, for the exploitation of hydrocarbons.
- PetroCanada. Canadian hydrocarbon company whose capital is 60% public and 40% private.
- Shangheber. Sino-Cuban company for the production of liquid interferon, product of the cooperation between the Caribbean company Heber-Biotec SA and the Institute of Biological Products of Shangchun.
- Electric Company of Ecuador. It was a mixed company that supplied electricity to the city of Guayaquil, in Ecuador, and whose capital was mainly North American. It worked until 1982, when it was liquidated.
- INVANIA. Argentine-Saudi company created in 2015 and which aims to develop technology, especially that related to nuclear energy.