In the context of a company registered under the Companies Act 1993, any payment of cash or property (including, for example, shares or options) from the company to its shareholders. The most common form of distribution is the payment of a dividend to shareholders.

For more information, see Practice note, Distributions.

In a corporate insolvency context, a distribution is a payment to a debtor company's creditors from sums realised from the sale of the company's assets.