The company has registered shares and is not listed on any stock exchange.

The registered shares generally sell at lower prices than the others and give holders more rights.

Registered shares can be owned only by Swiss citizens and institutions.

Beginning with Nestle in 1988, more companies have been opening their registered shares to foreign owners.

That effectively gave registered shares five times the voting power for each dollar of investment.

For example, some are registered shares, meaning that they have the name of the purchaser on the certificate.

Sandoz, the health-care products company, opened its registered shares to foreigners just last week.

One advantage of the fund is that about 50 percent of its holdings are in registered shares.

Registered shares offer issuers the advantage, enabling them to always know exactly who their shareholders are.

The Swiss system provides for separate registered shares and bearer shares.

A Registered share is a stock that is registered on the name of the exact owner.

Non-residents may only hold registered shares.

Mr. Maucher said the change was important not only because it raised the price of Nestle's registered shares.

The shares are either bearer shares or registered shares.

The premium of the bearer shares to the registered shares has shrunk from 102 percent to 13 percent.

At that time the shares were restricted to pharmacists as restrictedly transferable registered shares.

Other shareholders had complained when Philip Morris offered them 1,660 Swiss francs per registered share.

The holding company's registered shares are listed on SIX Swiss Exchange.

Mr. Ebner and investors in his financial group had realized that the registered shares would help them win power, and began buying them.

Nestle now will allow any foreigner to own up to 3 percent of the registered shares, as well as all the bearer shares desired.

During the summer, Parliament approved a law that stops Swiss banks from refusing to sell so-called registered shares with special voting powers to foreigners.

Each A.D.R. represents one registered share.

Two other classification systems are used as well: classification based on market capitalisation (small, middle, large) and security category (registered shares, bearer share, participation certificates).

The Martin Hilti Family Trust holds all of Hilti's registered shares as of 2003.

The Swiss food giant Nestle S.A. surprised financial markets by announcing that for the first time it would allow foreigners to buy its registered shares.