Alle Rechtstipps
07.02.2023
(updated on
07.04.2026
)
0
Min. read
If a unified company consisting of a limited partnership and a limited liability company (GmbH or entrepreneurial company) is to be formed, in which all limited partnership interests are contributed to a limited liability company, this formation cannot be carried out in a single step.Facts:The complainants wished to form a unified company in the legal form of an entrepreneurial company and co limited partnership. The sole shareholder of the entrepreneurial company was to be the entrepreneurial company and co limited partnership to be formed, and the general partner of the limited partnership was to be the entrepreneurial company. To this end the complainants, acting as managing directors of what they regarded as an already existing entrepreneurial company, applied to the commercial register and sought to have the companies registered at the same time. The registry court refused registration.Decision of the higher regional court:The court dismissed the complaint brought by the complainant (the entrepreneurial company). The entrepreneurial company argued that it was mere formalism if the formation of a unified company necessarily had to be carried out in two steps, since the end result would be the same.The court rejected this view with compellingly logical reasoning. Proceeding in the way the complainant intended would mean that the entrepreneurial company would in effect be founding itself. As general partner of the entrepreneurial company and co limited partnership, it wished to form the entrepreneurial company, which was then to become the general partner. It is however absolutely necessary that the entrepreneurial company is first formed in a valid manner, because before that there can be no entrepreneurial company and co limited partnership at all. In other words a legal entity that does not yet exist was supposed to found another legal entity. This is not and cannot be possible.The complainant also argued in vain that the entrepreneurial company must in any event have been validly formed because, if there had been no entrepreneurial company and co limited partnership, at least a general partnership must have existed which then founded the entrepreneurial company. The court pointed out that the formation of an entrepreneurial company is in sharp contrast with the express intention of the parties to form a limited partnership with the sole personally liable partner in the form of the entrepreneurial company. It therefore followed that a general partnership had not been formed.It follows that there was no suitable legal entity which could have founded the entrepreneurial company.Consequence:According to this decision the formation of a unified company can still only be carried out in two steps, in particular by way of the following alternatives:A limited partnership forms a GmbH or entrepreneurial company or acquires all shares in a GmbH and then replaces the general partner with the GmbH or entrepreneurial company.Natural persons form a GmbH and then form a GmbH and co limited partnership and, after formation of the GmbH and co limited partnership, transfer their shares in the GmbH to the limited partnership.
Hans-Jörg Briest
Rechtsanwalt

Schwerpunkte:
Arbeitsrecht
Wirtschaftsrecht
Gesellschaftsrecht
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