A company whose shares may not be offered to the public for sale and which operates under legal requirements less strict than those for a public company.
〈英〉（指股权不向公众发售，法律要求不如上市公司严格的）私人公司
Example sentencesExamples
Under a 30-year concession, a private company will operate and maintain the highway.
Forbes uses the value of publicly traded shares and private companies to obtain its figures.
In particular, shares in a private company can pass through an estate without probate.
This will be no surprise to anyone who has observed the award of contracts in the public sector to private companies.
Do we really want private companies deciding what the public is entitled to know?
It is indeed the basis of the distinction made in the Act between a public company and a private company.
It explains that insurance companies and other private companies are working with Medicare to offer the plans.
We argue that buying a private company is more risky than buying a public one.
These will be used to enable private companies involved in health and education to comply with public sector standards.
The consultant advised that the project be franchised out to a private company through public tender.
This practice is prevalent in private companies as well as public sector companies.
It has contracted a private company to draw up a business plan for a raft of improvements at the site which is expected to be completed by next summer.
The only concern is that the funds involved might be tilted towards one director in a small private company.
In private companies all significant shareholders can expect to be directors of their company.
We had a great reputation as a private company and I want the same reputation as a public company.
That said, there are private companies that are subcontracted to operate speed cameras.
Her guns were made by a private company with a legal monopoly on the gladiatorial gun market.
The mass mail delivery was part of a campaign by Unison against the increasing use of private companies in public services.
A private company with a vital public role had been given extended use of the public purse to continue doing a bad job.
The parties agree that there is more than one possible approach to such a valuation of shares in a private company.