> set up in a way that prevented it from transferring wealth back to the owners by any means
and i noticed you omitted the method of the owner selling the share (to a third party).
This is the primary way to transfer wealth generated from a company.
> expectation that it will lead to dividends/buybacks at some point in the future.
it doesn't need to be an expectation of such at all, as long as there is someone else in the market willing to purchase the share, at a price they and the owner deem acceptable.
You could have the opinion that the lack of any possible cashflow returns to the owner as a proxy for the share being valueless, but as long as everyone else disagrees with you, and continue to transact the share in the secondary market, it has value.
> and i noticed you omitted the method of the owner selling the share (to a third party).
This is not a method for the company to transfer wealth to the owner. This is a way for a third party to exchange wealth with the owner. It doesn't affect the value of the shares.
And for virtually any normal share in a company (that I know of) that either generates income or is expected to do so in the future, the share owners has the ability to extract that revenue directly through dividends, buybacks or even by liquidating the company and selling the assets directly.
This means that they discussion is hypothetical for all such companies.
If you could name one company that is being traded at a significant valuation that has been set up in a way that makes it impossible to extract value from it to its owners, I would be interested to know about it, as it might prove me wrong.
and i noticed you omitted the method of the owner selling the share (to a third party).
This is the primary way to transfer wealth generated from a company.
> expectation that it will lead to dividends/buybacks at some point in the future.
it doesn't need to be an expectation of such at all, as long as there is someone else in the market willing to purchase the share, at a price they and the owner deem acceptable.
You could have the opinion that the lack of any possible cashflow returns to the owner as a proxy for the share being valueless, but as long as everyone else disagrees with you, and continue to transact the share in the secondary market, it has value.