Issued Capital (Share Capital)

Issued (share) capital is the amount of nominal value of share held by the shareholders. It is the face value of the shares that have been issued to the shareholders. Issued share capital and share premium represent the amount invested by the shareholders in the company. It is also known as the subscribed capital or subscribed share capital (US - stock capital).

Issued (share) capital is the capital which has been issued to the shareholders and which still outstands. The shares which have been redeemed or repurchased by the company for holding them in treasury are not a part of the issued share capital.

Previously, issued capital comprised common equity shares as well as all preferred shares. But now only irredeemable preferred shares can be shown as part of issued share capital.

Issued capital consists of the shares that have been sold to the shareholders against cash or some other consideration. For example, if a company sold 100,000 shares which have a face value of $ 1 per share, then the issued share capital of such a company is $100,000.

Share capital of a company can change. Some companies issue new shares to the existing shareholders or new shareholders. These additional shares increase the value of issued share capital. Some companies even redeem or repurchase their own shares. This will reduce the amount of issued share capital.

It should be kept in mind that issued share capital is not affected by the market price of shares. The value of issued capital presented in the financial statements is simply the number of issued shares multiplied by the face value of each share. If company has issued 100,000 equity shares of face value $ 1 per share and the market value of each share is $ 2, even then the issued share capital of such a company will be $ 100,000 (Not $ 200,000).

Share capital can be different from authorized share capital. Authorized share capital is the maximum amount of equity capital that a company can issue to the shareholders. The issued capital can be less than the authorized share capital but it cannot be more than it.