Agriculture (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1944

2 Increase of resources of Agricultural Mortgage Corporation

(1) The Minister may agree with the Agricultural Mortgage Corporation formed for the purposes of Part I of the [18 & 19 Geo. 5. c. 43.] Agricultural Credits Act, 1928 (hereafter in this section referred to as " the Corporation ") that, if the Memorandum and Articles of the Corporation are altered so as to contain the provisions hereafter mentioned in this section, he will for the purpose of increasing the Corporation's guarantee fund make advances to the Corporation not exceeding in the aggregate, with the advances made by him to that fund under the said Part I, two million five hundred thousand pounds and on the same conditions as to repayment and as to payment of interest as the last-mentioned advances.

Any sums required for the purpose of making advances under this subsection shall be issued out of the Consolidated Fund or the growing produce thereof at such times and to such amounts as the Treasury think fit; and any sums paid by the Corporation by way of repayment of or interest on any such advances shall be paid into the Exchequer.

(2) If the Memorandum and Articles of the Corporation are altered as aforesaid, the maximum amount of the payment which may be made out of moneys provided by Parliament by the Minister to the Corporation under section thirty-two of the [2 & 3 Geo. 6. c. 48.] Agricultural Development Act, 1939, in the year in which they are so altered or any subsequent year shall be one hundred and fifty thousand pounds instead of sixty thousand pounds.

(3) The provisions to be contained in the Memorandum or Articles as above mentioned are provisions—

(a) for securing that, so long as any part of the advances made by the Minister to the guarantee fund (whether under the said Part I or under this section) remains outstanding, two of the directors shall be persons nominated by the Minister and that the number of directors shall not exceed five in addition to the two persons so nominated and the person nominated by the Treasury in accordance with the said Part I;

(b) for restricting the dividends on the share capital of the Corporation for any year at the beginning of which any part of the said advances remains outstanding to three and a half per cent. per annum, and for providing that the dividend for any such year shall not be cumulative so as to be payable in a later year ;

(c) for securing that in any year after the year nineteen hundred and fifty-eight in which the total reserves exceed twelve and a half per cent. of the liabilities of the Corporation there shall be allocated to the repayment of the guarantee fund one half of the profits remaining after payment of the maximum dividend on the share capital, and that for this purpose the reserves shall be taken to include, and the liabilities shall be taken to exclude, the guarantee fund and the share capital.

(4) The provisions above referred to may be included in the Memorandum or Articles notwithstanding anything in subsection (3) of section two of the Agricultural Credits Act, 1928, or anything in the [19 & 20 Geo. 5. c. 23.] Companies Act, 1929 ; and any alterations of the Memorandum for the purpose of inserting any of those provisions, and any alterations thereof declared by the Minister in giving his approval under subsection (2) of the said section two to be incidental to or consequential on their insertion, may be made by special resolution without being confirmed by an order of the court under section five of the Companies Act, 1929, and shall take effect as soon as made and approved by the Minister: .

Provided that subsections (6) and (7) of the said section five (providing for delivery to the registrar of companies of copies of the order confirming an alteration in the Memorandum of a company and of a printed copy of the Memorandum as altered) shall apply as if any references to an office copy of the order confirming the alteration were a reference to a certified copy of the Minister's approval and the reference to the date of that order were a reference to the date of that approval.