From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishpublic limited companyˌpublic ˌlimited ˈcompany noun [countable] BBC (abbreviation plc) a British company owned by at least two people and whose shares can be bought by everyone
Examples from the Corpus
public limited company• To meet the challenge the public authority would have to be transformed into a public limited company.• It did not refer specifically to the grounds upon which the nullity of a public limited company might be ordered.• Minors could not qualify for free shares under the terms of the recent Abbey conversion to a public limited company.From Longman Business Dictionarypublic limited companyˌpublic ˌlimited ˈcompanyFINANCE in Britain, a limited company whose shares are freely sold and traded, with a minimum SHARE CAPITAL of £50,000 and the letters PLC after its name → company 