Partnership limited by shares

German company law also provides for a partnership limited by shares
(Kommanditgesellschaft auf Aktien – KGaA). Although constituted as a
partnership, the KGaA of modern times is effectively treated as an AG for most
purposes and its shares can be traded on the stock exchange as though they
were shares in an AG. The KGaA has at least one partner with unlimited
liability. The shares are issued to and held as investments by the partners with
limited liability who thus have a similar status to that of shareholders in an AG.
All rights to manage the KGaA fall to the unlimited partners, who therefore
have, in this regard, the same position as the members of the Vorstand of an
AG. The division of profits and losses among the partners is a matter for the
statutes of the KGaA.
The KGaA has a long tradition on the German corporate scene, although there
are only a few notable examples still in existence. It is, however, favoured by
insurance companies.

There are also various other German corporate or semi-corporate legal forms,
but these are all either highly specialist in nature or are otherwise unsuitable for
foreign investors.