Amendment of section 162I12

1

Amend section 162 of the 1985 Act (power of company to purchase own shares)4 as follows.

2

For subsection (2) substitute—

2

Sections 159 and 160 apply to the purchase by a company under this section of its own shares as they apply to the redemption of redeemable shares.

This is subject to subsections (2A) and (2B).

2A

The terms and manner of a purchase under this section need not be determined by the articles as required by section 160(3).

2B

Where a company makes a purchase of qualifying shares out of distributable profits under this section, section 162A applies to the shares purchased; and accordingly section 160(4) does not apply to those shares.

3

At the end of subsection (3) insert “or shares held as treasury shares”.

4

After subsection (3) insert the following subsection—

4

For the purposes of this Chapter “qualifying shares” are shares which—

a

are included in the official list in accordance with the provisions of Part 6 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 20005,

b

are traded on the market known as the Alternative Investment Market established under the rules of London Stock Exchange plc,

c

are officially listed in an EEA State, or

d

are traded on a market established in an EEA State which is a regulated market for the purposes of Article 16 of Council Directive 93/22/EEC on investment services in the securities field6

and in paragraph (a) “the official list” has the meaning given in section 103(1) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000.