685.These sections re-enact section 241 of the 1985 Act on the laying of accounts and reports before the company in general meeting, but restrict its application to public companies. Under the Act, private companies are under no statutory obligation to hold an AGM or to lay accounts and reports in general meetings. There is therefore no statutory link for them between the accounts and AGMs (although such a link might be provided for in the company’s articles). Any AGM that a private company may hold pursuant to its articles will not be a statutory meeting. Public companies will still be required to hold AGMs and they must now hold them within 6 months of the end of the accounting reference period.