What is the Difference Between Bond and Share?

Share is a piece of ownership of a business. Bond is a piece of the loan of a business. Both are small pieces of a bigger cake, only the cakes are different.

Share

Share is the single unit of a large sum (share capital) invested by owners in the company. There are two types of shares, equity shares or common stock and preference shares or preferred stock. Equity or common shares being the most popular and widely owned we will concern ourselves with equity shares in this discussion.

As an investment, shares of excellent companies will yield excellent benefits of dividends and capital appreciation, over long periods of time and will generate enduring wealth.

As an investment, share alone can offer a shield against inflation.

Bond

Bond is a type of loan that is broken down into small pieces and issued to general public. Usually these are listed on popular stock exchanges are freely tradable in the open market. As in the case of any loan, following terms of agreement are pre-specified:

1. Face value of the bond
2. The rate of interest or coupon rate
3. Frequency of payment of interest – quarterly or half yearly or annually
4. Date of redemption or repayment or maturity

As an investment bonds yield a regular income. They are suitable for individuals and institutions who have a large corpus upfront and need a regular income for sustenance. They are not good for regular, middle class wage earners who have to build a corpus. Bonds do not offer any protection against inflation.

Differences between Share and a Bond:

Nature of Relationship	Owner	Lender
Return on Investment	Dividend	Interest
Mandatory Nature of income	Discretionary. Payable only upon declaration by directors.	Compulsory. No discretion in the hands of Directors.
Priority in Receipt of Income	Dividend can be paid only after interest is paid.	Interest is top most priority.
Capital Appreciation	Available	Not Always Available
Voting Rights	Available	Not Available
Priority in repayment during liquidation	Last, after all the obligations are met	After government and secured dues but before payment of capital.
Scope of Participation Surplus Assets after all obligations are met	Available	Not Available
Risk	Maximum Risk	Normal Risk
Rewards	Maximum Rewards	Limited Rewards
Liquidity of Investment	Liquid	Liquid only when listed on stock exchange.

To conclude, share is a piece of ownership of a business and bond is a piece of loan raised by the business. As an investment both serve different purposes. Shares offer inflation protection.

Capital

Capital is the money invested by the owner(s) of the business to meet the requirements of the business.

In the case of proprietary concerns it is called ‘proprietor’s capital’ and if it were a partnership firm it is called ‘partners’ capital’.

Share and Share Capital

During the colonial period businessmen found that it required a lot more capital to organise trade venture to far-off countries. Besides huge financial requirements, the ventures were fraught with a risk that is impossible for one or few individuals to bear. This resulted in the creation of joint stock companies, where the huge capital requirement is split into thousands of small units called shares, so that these small units can be easily sold to many hundreds and thousands of investors. The capital raised by the sale of ‘shares’ is called the ‘share capital’.

Limited Liability

Considering the large risks involved in the voyages/ ventures, by law the risk also was limited only to the amount invested, leaving the investors’ personal properties safe and untouched in the event the venture/ company failed. This was not and even today is not the case with proprietary concerns and partnership firms. The word 'Limited', 'Ltd.' in the short form are derived from and denote the limited or restricted liability of the shareholders or owners in the case of a joint stock company. 

The East India Company is good example of a joint stock company.

Equity and Preference Capital and Shares

Later evolution and sophistication resulted into two popular types of share capital, equity and preference (also called preferred).

In a nutshell, preference shares enjoy priority in terms of payment dividends as well as repayment of principal over equity shares.

Equity shares though least in priority and more risky nevertheless are bestowed with a feature of participation in the surplus. Equity shares are crafted based on the principle rewards is proportionate to risks.

Capital is a Liability of the Business

In the modern commercial world, the owner(s) of the enterprise and the business are treated as separate entities. Therefore the business treats the money invested by the owners/ shareholders as money it owes to the owners. shareholders and therefore in the account books of the business the capital is shown as a liability. In the balance sheet, capital is listed on the liabilities side.

	Conservative Enterprise Limited. Balance Sheet as at 31st March 2017
	Assets		Liabilities
	Fixed Assets	3000	Capital	500
			Reserves	5000
			Net Worth	5500
			Loans	0
	Inventory	150
	Receivables	1500	Trades payable	500
	Cash & Cash Equivalents	1350
	Total Assets	6000	Total Liabilities	6000

Of course in terms of priority in repayment, in the event of liquidation of the business, capital comes last. This means that when a business is being wound-up, the assets of the business are sold and the proceeds are utilised to repay the sums owed to various parties, including the owners/ shareholders, in the following order of priority:

In conclusion, capital is owner(s) investment in the business. In the case of a company it is called share capital. It is a liability owed to the owners. It is the last item to be repaid in the event of liquidation of a business.