Equity share capital meaning

Tax consequences of different buyback structures The table below offers a concise overview of the tax outcomes arising from the various forms of share buyback that a UK company may undertake. Throughout, it is assumed that the relevant shareholder is UK resident and that the repurchased shares are held as an investment. For fuller guidance on the tax treatment of share buybacks, see the following Practice Notes: Tax consequences of share buybacks—main rules Tax consequences of share buybacks—calculating the income capital split Tax consequences of share buybacks—unquoted trading companies For a comparative table setting out other ways a company can return value to shareholders, together with the principal UK tax issues for each route, see: Key UK tax considerations for returning value to shareholders—comparative table. Note that tailored provisions apply where the company repurchasing its shares is a qualifying asset holding company. For more on this, refer to Practice Note: Qualifying asset holding companies (QAHCs)—tax treatment...

STOP PRESS: A major overhaul of the UK listing framework took effect on 29 July 2024, removing the premium and standard segments and introducing a single listing category for equity shares in commercial companies. The commercial companies category is strongly disclosure-led, with an emphasis on transparency, and sits alongside other listing categories, such as shell companies, secondary listing and closed-ended investment fund categories. A new UK Listing Rules sourcebook came into force to deliver and implement the reforms, and the previous Listing Rules sourcebook was revoked in full. For further details, see Practice Note: Reform of the UK listing regime—fundamentals. This Checklist reflects the regime as it stood before 29 July 2024. The allotment and issue of shares are governed by statutory rules, which vary according to the type of company proposing the allotment (private or public, listed or unlisted) and whether that company has a single class or multiple classes of shares. This checklist sets out the procedure for a listed company to allot shares and to...

Checklist of key tax considerations relevant to share issues Structured as a table, this checklist clearly outlines key tax considerations specifically in respect of share issues...

STOP PRESS: A major overhaul of the UK listing framework took effect on 29 July 2024, removing the premium and standard listing segments and introducing a single listing category for equity shares issued by commercial companies. The commercial companies category is strongly disclosure-led and sits alongside other listing categories, namely shell companies, the secondary listing and closed ended investment fund categories. To implement the reforms, a new UK Listing Rules sourcebook came into force, and the former Listing Rules sourcebook was withdrawn. For further details and background, see Practice Note: Reform of the UK listing regime—fundamentals. This Flowchart sets out the listing regime as it applied before 29 July 2024, for ease of reference. You can view or print a full sized PDF version...

In this issue: Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 Equity capital markets Private M&A (share purchase) Corporate governance—EU Members Company restoration Daily and weekly news alerts Dates for your diary Trackers Useful information New Q&As Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 Companies and Limited Liability Partnerships (Protection and Disclosure of Information and Consequential Amendments) Regulations 2024 SI 2024/1377: These Regulations update LLP company law to reflect recent changes under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 and expand the scenarios in which a person’s residential address can be withheld from the company register, covering former registered office addresses, while maintaining corporate openness and aligning LLP provisions. They commence on 27 January 2025. See: LNB News 07/11/2024 27. Equity capital markets The Financial Conduct Authority has released Policy Statement PS24/19: Enhancing the National Storage Mechanism, setting out the feedback to Consultation Paper CP24/17, its longer-term vision for the NSM, and...

In this issue Company, disclosures, records and registers Equity capital markets Share purchase agreement Restructuring and insolvency for corporate lawyers Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Useful information Company, disclosures, records and registers Companies House publishes guidance on ACSPs and identity verification standards Companies House has issued three pieces of guidance covering the registration of Authorised Corporate Service Providers (ACSPs), what ACSPs do, and the identity verification obligations. The first note explains how to use Companies House’s service to enrol as an ACSP (also referred to as a Companies House authorised agent). Applications open on 25 February 2025. The second clarifies the functions and responsibilities of an ACSP. The third sets out how to meet Companies House identity verification standards when confirming someone’s identity. From 25 March 2025, ACSPs will be able to notify Companies House of identity checks that have been completed. Further, from spring...

In this issue: Audit Directors and company secretaries Nature of membership Share purchase agreement Corporate governance Equity capital markets EU developments Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Useful information Audit FRC introduces revised approach to audit supervision The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has set out an updated model for supervising audits, aimed at supporting a high quality, resilient and trusted UK audit market and profession, and has also issued a policy statement explaining how the new regime will function. This represents a development of the FRC’s supervisory framework. The FRC states the approach is designed to deliver a more proportionate, effective and integrated system of oversight, reflecting shifts in the audit market and the wider ecosystem. See: LNB News 25/03/2026 51. Directors and company secretaries Gardner Aerospace Holdings Ltd v Upton [2026] EWHC 555 (Ch) The High Court found that...

STOP PRESS: A major overhaul of the UK listings regime took effect on 29 July 2024, scrapping both the premium and the standard listing segments and replacing them with a single category for equity shares in commercial companies. That commercial companies category is heavily disclosure-led and sits alongside other listing categories, including the shell companies category, the secondary listing category and the closed ended investment fund category, among others. A new UK Listing Rules sourcebook came into force to deliver these changes, and the previous Listing Rules sourcebook was revoked. For further information and detail, see Practice Note: Reform of the UK listing regime—fundamentals. This Practice Note reflects the regime as it existed prior to 29 July 2024. A limited company may buy back shares in itself, provided conditions set out in the Companies Act 2006 (CA 2006) are satisfied, where applicable. This is known as a share buyback or a purchase of own shares. In addition to CA 2006, there are other rules and guidelines that are relevant...

Pre-emption rights on allotment Pre-emption rights on allotment provide every shareholder in a company with a means to guard against dilution of their percentage stake where this could result from a share allotment, the issue of rights to subscribe for shares, the conversion of securities into shares, or a disposal of treasury shares by that company. This Practice Note addresses the pre-emption rights applicable to an allotment of equity securities by a public company that is neither a listed company nor an AIM company (that is, an unlisted public company), as prescribed in the Companies Act 2006 (CA 2006). Close attention should be paid to the breadth of those statutory pre-emption rights, because an unlisted public company must observe them to the extent that they have not been disapplied, varied, waived, or excluded and ensure that it complies with them to that extent...

A business might need to secure extra capital for a variety of purposes. It could, for example, be to finance a planned acquisition or to satisfy continuing financial commitments. There are several routes by which a company can obtain the extra funding required, including tapping existing shareholders through a rights issue, an open offer or a placing. When running a rights issue, open offer or placing, the company must carefully assess the effect on any current employee share plans it operates. This assessment should take place as early as possible in the decision-making process to determine whether, and if so what, steps can be taken so that employees are not put at an unfair disadvantage by a rights issue, open offer or placing. This Practice Note outlines the key points that typically arise in connection with employee share plans on a rights issue, open offer or placing, the steps that will usually need to be taken in relation to outstanding options and awards, and the relevant tax treatment. ...

STOP PRESS : Significant reforms to the UK prospectus regime came into force on 19 January 2026 Major changes to the UK regime for public offers and admissions to trading took effect on 19 January 2026. The framework for securities offers and UK market admissions is now chiefly contained in the Public Offers and Admissions to Trading Regulations 2024, SI 2024/105 (the POATRs), together with the FCA sourcebook, The Prospectus Rules: Admission to Trading on a Regulated Market (PRM). The UK Prospectus Regulation and the FCA Prospectus Regulation Rules have been repealed. The reforms aim to simplify capital raising and substantially lessen the circumstances in which a company must publish an FCA-approved prospectus for a further share issue. For full details of the changes, see Practice Note: UK prospectus regime reform. This Practice Note sets out the prospectus regime that applied before 19 January 2026...

Archived: The ability to offer tax-favoured employee shareholder shares or ESS (commonly used in private equity company arrangements) has now been removed In the Autumn Statement 2016, the government confirmed that certain ESS-related tax reliefs would be withdrawn. The changes remove: The income tax and NICs relief applying to the first £2,000 of employee shareholder shares an individual receives The capital gains tax exemption in respect of all, or a portion, of ESS shares The provision ensuring that, when a company purchases employee shareholder shares from an employee shareholder, the consideration is not treated as a distribution in the shareholder’s hands The withdrawal of these reliefs applies to any employer shareholder agreements entered into on or after 1 December 2016. However, an individual who had obtained independent advice about entering an employer shareholder agreement before 23 November 2016 could still complete the agreement before 1 December 2016 and retain the beneficial income and CGT tax advantages...

Dated [ insert date ] Introduction This legal due diligence questionnaire concerns the intended acquisition by [ insert buyer name ] ( Newco ) of the whole issued share capital of [ insert name of target company ] Limited (the Target ) from [ insert seller name ] (the Seller ) (the Proposed Acquisition ). The questionnaire exists to enable Newco, Newco’s solicitors and its professional advisers involved in the Proposed Acquisition to obtain the information they require to aid the valuation of the Target and the subsidiaries of the Target (the Group and each a Group Company ). We reserve the right to raise further enquiries in relation to both your replies to this questionnaire and generally...

Passporting provisions in the Prospectus Regulation Under the Prospectus Regulation, an issuer must publish a prospectus and have it approved by a competent authority when offering securities to the public in the EEA or when applying for admission of securities to a regulated market, where no relevant exemption applies. To streamline cross-border share offerings within the EEA, the EU prospectus regime provides passporting arrangements that permit companies to produce a single prospectus usable throughout the EEA, avoiding the preparation of multiple documents for separate jurisdictions. Articles 24 to 26 of the Prospectus Regulation (EU) 2017/1129 set out these passporting provisions, stating that a prospectus approved by the competent authority in one EEA state (the home member state) can be relied upon in another EEA state (the host member state) without requiring the prospectus to be approved again by the competent authority in the host member state. As a result, a UK issuer has been able to undertake a cross-border share offer across the EEA on the basis of...