274.Sections 152 and 153 enable indirect investors, via the registered member, to exercise voting and requisition rights by making it easier for registered members to exercise rights in different ways to reflect underlying holdings and by allowing those on whose behalf they hold shares to participate in requisitions. These two sections apply to all companies.
275.This section provides that a member can choose to split his holding and exercise rights attached to shares in different ways. This is to accommodate members who hold shares on behalf of more than one person, each of whom may want to exercise rights attaching to their shares in different ways. So, for example, it enables votes to be cast in different ways. Subsection (4) provides that if the member does not make it clear to the company in what way he is exercising his rights the company can assume that all rights are being dealt with in the same way.
276.This section deals with four situations where the shareholder threshold required to trigger a right is 100 shareholders holding £100 each on average of paid-up capital. Indirect investors are able to count towards the total subject to certain conditions, intended to ensure that only genuine indirect investors are allowed to count towards the total, that the same shares cannot be used twice and that the indirect investor’s contractual arrangements with the member allow the former to give voting instructions.