Finance (No. 2) Act 1997

5 Interpretation of Part I. U.K.

(1) In this Part—

• “company” means a company within the meaning of the M1 Companies Act 1985 or the M2 Companies (Northern Ireland) Order 1986;

• “fixed price”, in relation to any offer of publicly-owned shares in a company, means—

  (a)

  a price set out in the offer; or

  (b)

  a price subsequently fixed by a Minister of the Crown in a case in which the amount of a first instalment of the price was fixed by the offer;

• “the floated company”, in relation to the privatisation of a company by means of a flotation, means the company so privatised;

• “public corporation”, in relation to a statutory transfer, means any body corporate in existence at the time of the transfer which—

  (a)

  had been established by or in accordance with the provisions of any enactment; and

  (b)

  had a membership consisting of, or including, persons appointed as members by a Minister of the Crown;

• “publicly-owned”, in relation to any shares, means held by—

  (a)

  a Minister of the Crown or the Treasury; or

  (b)

  a nominee for a Minister of the Crown or for the Treasury;

• “share” includes any right to require the issue of a share;

• “statutory transfer” means a transfer under a transferring enactment or by or in accordance with a statutory scheme;

• “subsidiary undertaking”—

  (a)

  except in relation to a company formed and registered in Northern Ireland, means a subsidiary undertaking within the meaning of Part VII of the Companies Act 1985; and

  (b)

  in relation to a company so formed and registered, means a subsidiary undertaking within the meaning of Part VIII of the Companies (Northern Ireland) Order 1986.

(2) In this section—

• “enactment” means an enactment contained in a public general Act or any provision of Northern Ireland legislation;

• “Minister of the Crown” includes a Northern Ireland department or the head of such a department;

• “statutory scheme” means any scheme which—

  (a)

  has been made in exercise of any power or duty conferred or imposed by any enactment;

  (b)

  contains provision for the division of property, rights and liabilities between different persons, or for the transfer of property, rights and liabilities to a company; and

  (c)

  would not have taken effect or come into force but for having been approved by a Minister of the Crown;

• “transferring enactment” means an enactment under which property, rights and liabilities of a person specified in the enactment became, by virtue of that enactment, the property, rights or liabilities of a company nominated under that enactment.

(3) In subsection (2) above the reference, in relation to a scheme, to its having been approved by a Minister of the Crown includes a reference to its having been made by a Minister of the Crown.

(4) The reference in subsection (1) above to Part VII of the M3 Companies Act 1985 shall be construed, in relation to times in relation to which that Part had effect without the amendments made by the M4 Companies Act 1989, as if those amendments did have effect in relation to those times.

Marginal Citations

M1 1985 c. 6.

M2 S.I. 1986/1032 (N.I. 6).

M3 1985 c. 6.

M4 1989 c. 40.