Companies (Consolidation) Act 1908

104 Power to re-issue redeemed debentures in certain cases.

(1) Where either before or after the passing of this Act a company has redeemed any debentures previously issued, the company, unless the articles or the conditions of issue expressly otherwise provide, or unless the debentures have been redeemed in pursuance of any obligation on the company so to do (not being an obligation enforceable only by the person to whom the redeemed debentures were issued or his assigns), shall have power, and shall be deemed always to have had power, to keep the debentures alive for the purposes of re-issue, and where a company has purported to exercise such a power the company shall have power, and shall be deemed always to have had power, to re-issue the debentures either by re-issuing the same debentures or by issuing other debentures in their place, and upon such a re-issue the person entitled to the debentures shall have, and shall be deemed always to have had, the same rights and priorities as if the debentures had not previously been issued.

(2) Where with the object of keeping debentures alive for the purpose of re-issue they have either before or after the passing of this Act been transferred to a nominee of the company, a transfer from that nominee shall be deemed to be a re-issue for the purposes of this section.

(3) Where a company has either before or after the passing of this Act deposited any of its debentures to secure advances from time to time on current account or otherwise, the debentures shall not be deemed to have been redeemed by reason only of the account of the company having ceased to be in debit whilst the debentures remained so deposited.

(4) The re-issue of a debenture or the issue of another debenture in its place under the power by this section given to, or deemed to have been possessed by, a company, whether the re-issue or issue was made before or after the passing of this Act, shall be treated as the issue of a new debenture for the purposes of stamp duty, but it shall not be so treated for the purposes of any provision limiting the amount or number of debentures to be issued :

Provided that any person lending money on the security of a debenture reissued under this section which appears to be duly stamped may give the debenture in evidence in any proceedings for enforcing his security without payment of the stamp duty or any penalty in respect thereof, unless he had notice or, but for his negligence, might have discovered, that the debenture was not duly stamped, but in any such case the company shall be liable to pay the proper stamp duty and penalty.

(5) Nothing in this section shall prejudice—

(a) the operation of any judgment or order of a court of competent jurisdiction pronounced or made before the seventh day of March nineteen hundred and seven as between the parties to the proceedings in which the judgment was pronounced or the order made, and any appeal from any such judgment or order shall be decided as if this Act had not been passed; or

(b) any power to issue debentures in the place of any debentures paid off or otherwise satisfied or extinguished, reserved to a company by its debentures or the securities for the same.