首先，我国只有上市公司，并没有公众公司这一说法：

上市公司的定义如下：

上市公司是股份有限公司中的一个特定组成部分，它公开发行股票，达到相当规模，经依法核准其股票进入证券集中交易市场进行交易。股份有限公司申请其股票上市交易，应当向证券交易所报送有关文件。证券交易所依照本法及有关法律、行政法规的规定决定是否接受其股票上市交易。

而上市公司最准确的英文则是listed company。

因此，想要了解public company的概念，需要查找英文原文。经搜索，维基百科中有关public company的定义如下：

A public company, publicly traded company, publicly held company, publicly listed company, or public limited company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter markets. A public company can be listed on a stock exchange (listed company), which facilitates the trade of shares, or not (unlisted public company). In some jurisdictions, public companies over a certain size must be listed on an exchange. In most cases, public companies are private enterprises in the private sector, and "public" emphasizes their reporting and trading on the public markets.

其中，“A public company can be listed on a stock exchange (listed company), which facilitates the trade of shares, or not (unlisted public company). ”的意思是，public company可以在股票交易所上市（listed company-上市公司），交易股票，亦可以不在股票交易所上市（unlisted public company-非上市公司）。由此可见， public company在某些情况下（比如说，某一公司很明显为上市公司时，如示例一），可将其译为上市公司，但通指时，则将其译为“公众公司”更为准确（如示例二）。

以下为相关双语示例，供参考：

示例一：

We welcome our new shareholders with the payment of our maiden $ 0.05 per share dividend as a public company.

我们宣布我们作为一间上市公司派付每股0 .05美元的首次股息，热忱欢迎新股东的投资。

示例二：

Taking into account the majority view that the net should not be cast too wide, the concept of “relevant private company” will be modified to cover only private companies which are subsidiaries of a listed or public company.

由于大部分回应者认为不应将涵盖范围订得太过广阔，我们会修改“有关私人公司”的概念，将范围限于上市／公众公司附属的私人公司。