Limited by shares companies must assign a nominal value to each of their shares during their incorporation (for example, £1, £0.50, £0.01, etc) The nominal value of shares represents the ‘limited liability’ of company members, which is the sum of money that shareholders are legally required to pay on each of their shares upon the request of the company or if the company is wound up. The combined nominal value of all issued shares is the total share capital of a company.
How to change your company’s share capital
As per section 617 of the Companies Act 2006, a limited company is permitted to alter its share capital in the following ways:
- allotting (issuing) new shares
- reduction of share capital
- sub-dividing or consolidating share capital
- re-denomination of shares
- reconversion of stocks into shares
We will take a look at each of these specified methods below.
Allotting new shares
Allotting new shares generally has the effect of increasing a company’s share capital. It is important to understand the difference between ordinary allotments and bonus issues.
Ordinary allotments
An ordinary allotment of shares is where a limited company issues new shares following initial company formation. These shares may subsequently be sold or given to existing or new shareholders for the purpose of raising additional capital, repaying borrowings, funding new projects, or rewarding employees, for example.
Bonus issues
A company may decide to issue extra shares, free of charge, to existing shareholders in the same proportion as their existing holdings. This is known as a bonus issue of shares (also sometimes called a ‘scrip issue’ or ‘capitalisation issue’, because part of the company’s undistributed reserves or profits are capitalised and used to pay up the issue of the shares).
An ordinary allotment of shares is different from a bonus issue of shares. Whilst shares created by an ordinary allotment can be either sold or given away to existing members and new members, shares created by a bonus issue can only be distributed to existing shareholders – and this must be done free of charge.
Procedure
Part 17, Chapter 2 of the Companies Act 2006 deals with the allotment of shares. The basic procedure consists of passing an ordinary resolution. An ordinary resolution requires a ‘simple majority’, which means that more than 50% of the votes cast are in favour of the resolution. It requires a vote to be taken at a general meeting of shareholders, a board meeting of directors, or by written resolution.
A Return of Allotment of Shares (form SH01) must be filed at Companies House within one month of the allotment to provide notice of the procedure having taken place. A statement of capital must also be filled out to reflect the company’s issued capital following the changes. The register of members needs to be updated and new share certificates should be issued within two months.
Failure to notify Companies House amounts to an offence being committed by the company and “every officer of the company who is in default” – which can result in penalties.
Reduction of capital
This is a way of decreasing a company’s share capital through a number of means, such as share cancellations or share repurchases (also called buybacks). The result of capital reduction is that the number of shares in the company will decrease by the reduction amount. However, the company’s market value won’t change — there will simply be fewer shares available to trade.
Procedure
Reduction of share capital is dealt with in Part 17, Chapter 10 of the Companies Act 2006. There are two ways this can be done, depending on the type of company:
- By special resolution with confirmation of the court — this route has to be taken by public limited companies.
- By special resolution supported by a solvency statement of the directors — this route is for private limited companies only.
Both routes require at least 75% of the eligible members’ votes to be cast in favour of the action.
Within 15 days of passing the resolution, form SH19 needs to be filed with Companies House, along with a copy of the shareholders’ special resolution, a directors’ statement of solvency, and a directors’ compliance statement expressing that the solvency statement was made no more than 15 days before the date of the special resolution and was given to the members before the resolution was passed.
Consolidation and sub-division of share capital
According to s. 618 of the Companies Act 2006, any limited company with share capital can:
“(a) sub-divide its shares, or any of them, into shares of a smaller nominal amount than its existing shares, or
(b) consolidate and divide all or any of its share capital into shares of a larger nominal amount than its existing shares.”
This allows a company to alter the number of shares and their nominal value, without changing the overall amount of share capital. A sub-division will divide some or all of its shares into more shares of a smaller nominal value, whereas a consolidation will amalgamate some or all of its issued shares into fewer shares of a larger nominal value.
Procedure
As long as the articles of association or shareholders’ agreement do not prohibit consolidation or sub-division of shares, it is simply a matter of passing an ordinary resolution.
Form SH02 must be filed with Companies House within one month of the consolidation or sub-division taking place (s. 619 of the Companies Act), to provide notice of the procedure having taken place. A statement of capital must be filled out to reflect the company’s issued capital following the changes. The register of members needs to be updated and new share certificates should be issued.
Share re-denominations
Share re-denomination (also known as re-denomination of share capital) is the conversion of company “shares from having a fixed nominal value in one currency to having a fixed nominal value in another currency” (s. 622 of the Companies Act 2006).
Procedure
The main action which needs to be taken to effect a re-denomination of share capital is to hold an ordinary resolution, subject to any restrictions or bespoke instructions contained in the company’s articles of association or shareholders’ agreement.
Section 622 of the Companies Act 2006 states that the conversion to the new currency “must be made at an appropriate spot rate of exchange specified in the resolution”…which must be either “a rate prevailing on a day specified in the resolution, or…a rate determined by taking the average of rates prevailing on each consecutive day of a period specified in the resolution.”
The re-denomination itself takes place “on the day on which the resolution is passed, or…on such later day as may be determined in accordance with the resolution” – but if the re-denomination has not taken effect at the end of the period of 28 days (beginning on the date on which it is passed), it will lapse.
Form SH14 must be used to give notice of a re-denomination of shares to Companies House (s. 625). This must be done within one month of passing the resolution.
Share re-denomination with reduction of capital
Section 626 of the Companies Act 2006 allows for the reduction of capital in connection with share re-denomination. This requires a special resolution be passed within three months of the re-denomination resolution.
The share capital reduction cannot exceed 10% of the nominal value of the company’s allotted share capital immediately after the reduction and, under section 628, the amount by which a company’s share capital is reduced must be transferred to a “re-denomination reserve.” This reserve may be applied by the company in paying up shares to be allotted to members as fully paid bonus shares.
There is no need for court approval or a solvency statement if there is a reduction of capital in connection with re-denomination, but Companies House must be notified within 15 days of the resolution being passed (section 627).
Reconversion of stock into shares
Under s. 620: “A limited company that has converted paid-up shares into stock…may reconvert that stock into paid-up shares of any nominal value.” This means if a company has previously converted shares to stock, it can reverse this.
It should be noted that this only applies to shares that were converted into stock before 1 October 2009 (the date of the final implementation of certain measures of the Companies Act 2006); it has not been possible to convert company shares to stock after this date.
Procedure
An ordinary resolution must first be passed. Form SH02 must be filed with Companies House within one month of the resolution, to provide notice of the resolution. A statement of capital must be filled out to reflect the company’s issued capital following the changes.
Share re-designation
Although this does not constitute a form of alteration of share capital under s. 617, the re-designation of shares (also known as reclassification or renaming of shares) can nevertheless have the effect of changing the overall structure of share capital within a limited company.
Procedure
To re-designate shares, the members of the company must pass an ordinary resolution and submit form SH08 to Companies House. It may also be necessary to alter the articles of association which requires a special resolution.
Section 630 of the Act requires that, in the absence of express permission being given for variation for class rights in the company’s articles of association, shareholders of at least 75% in nominal value of the issued shares of that class must provide written consent for variation of rights attached to their shares, or else a special resolution must be passed. Companies House should be notified using form SH10.
