ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Besloten vennootschap

A besloten vennootschap is a special kind of company that people can create. It's called a "besloten" vennootschap because it's a private company that not just anyone can be a part of.

When people create a besloten vennootschap, they have to decide who will be part of the company. They might choose some friends or family members, for example. Together, all the people who are part of the company are called "shareholders."

Each shareholder gets something called a "share" of the company. Shares are like pieces of a cake - if there are four shareholders, they might each get one-quarter of the cake. In the same way, if there are four shareholders in a besloten vennootschap, they might each get 25% of the company.

People create besloten vennootschaps because they want to do business together in a special way. They want to work like a team, and they want to share profits and losses. Profits are like a prize for working hard - if the company makes money by selling things, for example, the shareholders might get to share some of that money. But if the company loses money, the shareholders might have to share in that loss too.

Besloten vennootschaps are different from other kinds of companies because they don't have to share information with the public. This means that they can keep some things secret, like how much money they make or who their customers are. It also means they don't have to follow as many rules as other companies.

So, a besloten vennootschap is really just a special kind of private company, where only a select group of people (shareholders) get to work together and share in the good and bad things that happen in the business.