Formation of a holding SE is one of the four ways of establishing a European Company (societas europaea - ‘SE') as regulated in the Council Regulation No 2157/2001 on the Statute for a European Company (cited below: SE-Reg.). It is also an original way of European company law to create a joint stock company. It's true that companies are making use of the holding structure in order to combine their economic potentials and to create international groups of enterprises. But, as it was in the case of the formation of the Aventis S.A., the holding structures usually come into existence by means of an increase of the subscribed capital in an existing company. The new shares are issued to the shareholders of another company who pay for it with the shares of their company. The operation results in formation of a holding structure in which the company that increased its capital, becomes a holding company dominating a company or companies the shares of which were contributed. The formation of a holding SE is guided by the similar idea: an exchange of the shares of national private or public limited liability companies into the shares of a European Company. However, in contrast to the Aventis like-cases, the dominant company, i.e. the SE, does not exist yet but has to be created by the companies according to the provisions of the SE-Regulation. This fact as well as many legal gaps existing in the scanty regulation of holding formation and the necessity to apply both the provisions of European and national law concomitantly may lead to many legal problems some of which will be presented below.
