S.A. is the abbreviation of Société Anonyme in French, Spółka Akcyjna in Polish, Sociedad Anónima in Spanish, Sociedade Anónima in Portuguese, or Naamloze Venootschap (N.V.) in Dutch, generally designating corporations in various countries. This translates literally as anonymous company, and can be opposed to partnerships and to limited liability companies. A corporation is a legal entity (distinct from a natural person) that often has similar rights in law to those of a Civil law systems may refer to corporations as moral persons; they may also go by the name AS (anonymous society) or something similar, depending on language (see below). ... In the common law, a partnership is a type of business entity in which partners share with each other the profits or losses of the business undertaking in which they have all invested. ... A Limited liability company (denoted by L.L.C. or LLC) is a type of legal entity which has only relatively recently been made possible to establish in the United States and many other, mainly anglophone, countries. ...

In Central America S.A. refers to the stricter corporate laws, that allow individuals to form legal corporations without revealing their identity, via the use of bearer bonds. A Bearer Bond is a legal certificate that usually represents a bond obligation of, or stock in, a corporation or some other intangible property. ...