RESTRICTION APPLYING TO PUBLIC COMPANIES ISSUING PARTLY PAID SHARES
| A public company must not allot a share except as paid up at least as to one-quarter of its nominal value and the whole of the premium (if any) on it - section 101 of the Companies Act 1985. So if, for example, the company were issuing shares with a nominal value of £1 per share, for the sum of £1.50 per share (i.e. a premium of £0.50 per share) the minimum amount required to be paid up initially would be £0.75 per share (i.e. one-quarter of £1, plus the whole of the premium). This restriction does not apply to shares allotted in pursuance of an employees' share scheme - section 101(2) of the Companies Act 1985. The expression 'employees' share scheme' is defined in section 743 of the Companies Act 1985 which provides as follows:
| | 743 'Employees' share scheme' | | For the purposes of this Act, an employees' share scheme is a scheme for encouraging or facilitating the holding of shares or debentures in a company by or for the benefit of - |
(a) | the bona fide employees or former employees of the company, the company's subsidiary or holding company or a subsidiary of the company's holding company, or |
(b) | the wives, husbands, widows, widowers or children or step-children under the age of 18 of such employees or former employees. |
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