A form of private placing where an institutional investor buys shares from a shareholder in a private company who wishes to realise his investment.

Share options can be issued to managers or sometimes institutions. They confer the right to acquire shares at a specified price or after a future date, and they can be performance-related. The release of share options will normally dilute the value of other shares in issue.

Ordinary shares - the equity of the company. Decisions on matters like whether the company should be sold are normally taken by the shareholders of a majority of the ordinary shares. See also preference shares.

A self-explanatory term - but whereas in the past, it usually applied to the owner of something like a corner shop, today there are thousands of owner-managers of substantial businesses, many of whom became owners as a result of a management buy-out or buy-in. Others built up the business themselves.