Source: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/nisi/1986/1032/part/III
Timestamp: 2020-07-07 06:49:24
Document Index: 579764096

Matched Legal Cases: ['art. 53', 'art. 11', 'art. 53', 'art. 54', 'art 20', 'art. 55', 'art. 56', 'art. 56', 'art. 56', 'art. 56', 'art 20', 'art. 57', 'art. 61', 'art. 12', 'art. 61']

PART IIIN.I.RE-REGISTRATION AS A MEANS OF ALTERING A COMPANY'S STATUS
Private company becoming publicN.I.
Re-registration of private company as publicN.I.
53.—(1) Subject to this Article and Articles 54 to 58, a private company (other than a company not having a share capital) may be re-registered as a public company if—
(a)a special resolution that it should be so re-registered is passed; and
(b)an application for re-registration is delivered to the registrar, together with the necessary documents.
A company cannot be re-registered under this Article if it has previously been re-registered as unlimited.
(2) The special resolution must—
(a)alter the company's memorandum so that it states that the company is to be a public company; and
(b)make such other alterations in the memorandum as are necessary to bring it (in substance and in form) into conformity with the requirements of this Order with respect to the memorandum of a public company (the alterations to include compliance with Article 35(1)[F1, or section 33 of the Companies (Audit, Investigations and Community Enterprise) Act 2004,] as regards the company's name); and
(c)make such alterations in the company's articles as are requisite in the circumstances.
(3) The application must be in the prescribed form and be signed by a director or secretary of the company; and the documents to be delivered with it are the following—
(a)a printed copy of the memorandum and articles as altered in pursuance of the resolution;
(b)a copy of a written statement by the company's auditors that in their opinion the relevant balance sheet shows that at the balance sheet date the amount of the company's net assets (within the meaning given to that expression by [F2section 831 of the Companies Act 2006]) was not less than the aggregate of its called-up share capital and undistributable reserves;
(c)a copy of the relevant balance sheet, together with a copy of an unqualified report (as defined in Article 56) by the company's auditors in relation to that balance sheet;
(d)if Article 54 applies, a copy of the valuation report under paragraph (2)(b) of that Article; and
(e)[F3subject to paragraph (3A),] a statutory declaration in the prescribed form by a director or secretary of the company—
(i)that the special resolution required by this Article has been passed and that the conditions of Articles 54 and 55 (so far as applicable) have been satisfied, and
(ii)that, between the balance sheet date and the application for re-registration, there has been no change in the company's financial position that has resulted in the amount of its net assets becoming less than the aggregate of its called-up share capital and undistributable reserves.
[F3(3A) In place of the statutory declaration referred to in sub-paragraph (e) of paragraph (3), there may be delivered to the registrar using electronic communications a statement made by a director or secretary of the company as to the matters set out in heads (i) and (ii) of that sub-paragraph.
(3B) Any person who makes a false statement under paragraph (3A) which he knows to be false or does not believe to be true is liable to imprisonment or a fine, or both.]
(4) In this Article and Articles 54 and 56, “relevant balance sheet” means a balance sheet prepared as at a date not more than 7 months before the company's application under this Article.
(5) A resolution that a company be re-registered as a public company may change the company name by deleting the word “company” or the words “and company”, including any abbreviation of them.
F1Words in art. 53(2)(b) inserted (6.4.2007) by Companies Act 2006 (Commencement No. 2, Consequential Amendments, Transitional Provisions and Savings) Order 2007 (S.I. 2007/1093), arts. 1(3), 6(2), Sch. 4 para. 52 (with art. 11(1))
F2Words in art. 53(3)(b) substituted (6.4.2008) by virtue of Companies Act 2006 (Consequential Amendments etc) Order 2008 (S.I. 2008/948), arts. 2(2), 3(1)(b), Sch. 1 para. 117 (with arts. 6, 11, 12)
(a)“arrangement” means any agreement, scheme or arrangement, including an arrangement sanctioned in accordance with [F4section 899 of the Companies Act 2006] (company compromise with creditors and members) or[F5 Article 96 of the Insolvency Order] (liquidator in winding up accepting shares as consideration for sale of a company's property), and
F4Words in art. 54(7)(a) substituted (6.4.2008) by Companies Act 2006 (Consequential Amendments etc) Order 2008 (S.I. 2008/948), arts. 2(2), 3(1)(b), Sch. 1 para. 118 (with arts. 6, 11, 12)
Additional requirements relating to share capitalN.I.
55.—(1) For a private company to be re-registered under Article 53 as a public company, the following conditions with respect to its share capital must be satisfied at the time the special resolution under that Article is passed.
(2) Subject to paragraphs (5) to (7)—
(a)the nominal value of the company's allotted share capital must be not less than the authorised minimum, [F6(see Chapter 2 of Part 20 of the Companies Act 2006)] and
(b)each of the company's allotted shares must be paid up at least as to one-quarter of the nominal value of that share and the whole of any premium on it.
(3) Subject to paragraph (5), if any shares in the company or any premium payable on them have been fully or partly paid up by an undertaking given by any person that he or another should do work or perform services (whether for the company or any other person), the undertaking must have been performed or otherwise discharged.
(4) Subject to paragraph (5), if shares have been allotted as fully or partly paid up as to their nominal value or any premium payable on them otherwise than in cash and the consideration for the allotment consists of or includes an undertaking (other than one to which paragraph (3) applies) to the company, then either—
(a)the undertaking must have been performed or otherwise discharged, or
(b)there must be a contract between the company and some person pursuant to which the undertaking is to be performed within 5 years from the time the special resolution under Article 53 is passed.
(5) For the purpose of determining whether paragraphs (2)(b), (3) and (4) are complied with, certain shares in the company may be disregarded; and these are—
(a)subject to paragraph (6), any share which was allotted on or before 31st December 1984, or
(b)any share which was allotted in pursuance of an employees' share scheme and by reason of which the company would, but for this paragraph, be precluded under paragraph (2)(b) (but not otherwise) from being re-registered as a public company.
(6) A share is not be disregarded under paragraph (5)(a) if the aggregate in nominal value of that share and other shares proposed to be so disregarded is more than one-tenth of the nominal value of the company's allotted share capital; but for this purpose the allotted share capital is treated as not including any shares disregarded under paragraph (5)(b).
(7) Any shares disregarded under paragraph (5) are treated as not forming part of the allotted share capital for the purposes of paragraph (2)(a).
F6Words in art. 55(2)(a) inserted (6.4.2008) by Companies Act 2006 (Consequential Amendments etc) Order 2008 (S.I. 2008/948), arts. 2(2), 3(1)(b), Sch. 1 para. 119 (with arts. 6, 11, 12)
Meaning of “unqualified report” in Article 53(3)N.I.
56.—(1) The following paragraphs explain the reference in Article 53(3)(c) to an unqualified report of the company's auditors on the relevant balance sheet.
[F7(2) If the balance sheet was prepared for a financial year of the company, the reference is to an auditors' report stating without material qualification the auditors' opinion that the balance sheet has been properly prepared [F8in accordance with the Companies Act 2006].
(3) If the balance sheet was not prepared for a financial year of the company, the reference is to an auditors' report stating without material qualification the auditors' opinion that the balance sheet has been properly prepared in accordance with [F9the provisions of the Companies Act 2006] which would have applied if it had been so prepared.
For the purposes of an auditors' report under this paragraph [F9the provisions of the Companies Act 2006] shall be deemed to apply with such modifications as are necessary by reason of the fact that the balance sheet is not prepared for a financial year of the company.
(4) A qualification shall be regarded as material unless the auditors state in their report that the matter giving rise to the qualification is not material for the purpose of determining (by reference to the company's balance sheet) whether at the balance sheet date the amount of the company's net assets was not less than the aggregate of its called up share capital and undistributable reserves.
In this paragraph “net assets” and “undistributable reserves” have the meaning given by [F10section 831 of the Companies Act 2006][F11 and “financial year” has the meaning given by section 390 of that Act].]
F8Words in art. 56(2) substituted (6.4.2008) by Companies Act 2006 (Consequential Amendments etc) Order 2008 (S.I. 2008/948), arts. 2(2), 3(1)(b), Sch. 1 para. 120(2) (with arts. 6, 11, 12)
F9Words in art. 56(3) substituted (6.4.2008) by Companies Act 2006 (Consequential Amendments etc) Order 2008 (S.I. 2008/948), arts. 2(2), 3(1)(b), Sch. 1 para. 120(3) (with arts. 6, 11, 12)
F10Words in art. 56(4) substituted (6.4.2008) by Companies Act 2006 (Consequential Amendments etc) Order 2008 (S.I. 2008/948), arts. 2(2), 3(1)(b), Sch. 1 para. 120(4)(a) (with arts. 6, 11, 12)
F11Words in art. 56(4) inserted (6.4.2008) by Companies Act 2006 (Consequential Amendments etc) Order 2008 (S.I. 2008/948), arts. 2(2), 3(1)(b), Sch. 1 para. 120(4)(b) (with arts. 6, 11, 12)
Certificate of re-registration under Article 53N.I.
57.—(1) If the registrar is satisfied, on an application under Article 53, that a company may be re-registered under that Article as a public company, he shall—
(2) The registrar may accept a declaration under Article 53(3)(e)[F12 or a statement under Article 53(3A)] as sufficient evidence that the special resolution required by that Article has been passed and the other conditions of re-registration have been satisfied.
(3) The registrar shall not issue a certificate of incorporation if it appears to him that the court has made an order confirming a reduction of the company's capital which has the effect of bringing the nominal value of the company's allotted share capital below the authorised minimum [F13(see Chapter 2 of Part 20 of the Companies Act 2006)].
F13Words in art. 57(3) inserted (6.4.2008) by Companies Act 2006 (Consequential Amendments etc) Order 2008 (S.I. 2008/948), arts. 2(2), 3(1)(b), Sch. 1 para. 121 (with arts. 6, 11, 12)
(b)[F14subject to paragraph (8A),] a statutory declaration made by the directors of the company—
[F14(8A) In place of the lodging of a statutory declaration under sub-paragraph (b) of paragraph (8), there may be delivered to the registrar using electronic communications a statement made by the directors of the company as to the matters set out in heads (i) and (ii) of that sub-paragraph.
(4) F15. . . an application for the company to be re-registered as limited, framed in the prescribed form and signed by a director or by the secretary of the company, must be lodged with the registrar, together with the necessary documents, not earlier than the day on which the copy of the resolution forwarded [F16under section 30 of the Companies Act 2006] is received by him.
F15Words in art. 61(4) omitted (1.10.2007) by virtue of Companies Act 2006 (Commencement No. 3, Consequential Amendments, Transitional Provisions and Savings) Order 2007 (S.I. 2007/2194), arts. 1(3)(a), 10(1), Sch. 4 para. 17(2)(a) (with art. 12)
F16Words in art. 61(4) substituted (1.10.2007) by Companies Act 2006 (Commencement No. 3, Consequential Amendments, Transitional Provisions and Savings) Order 2007 (S.I. 2007/2194), arts. 1(3)(a), 10(1), Sch. 4 para. 17(2)(b) (with arts. 12)
[F17(2A) For the purposes of paragraph (2)(a), any of the company's issued share capital held as treasury shares must be disregarded.]
F17SR 2004/275