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Public Companies Update January 2005
6 STOP PRESS
6.1 Specimen Wording on Issuer Documentation Published
by Crestco Ltd
On 9 November 2004, CRESTco Ltd placed specimen wording for
issuer documentation (further details of which are set out
below) on its website to assist CREST share issuers, following
the recent changes it introduced in July 2004. Those changes
enabled:
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Share issuers to electronically transmit
combined dividend and interest payments by CREST message
with the supply of tax vouchers in electronic form (rather
than in hard copy as previously required); |
| • |
CREST members to elect to take electronic
dividend and interest payments from share issuers (where
those payments have been previously permitted by the issuer
in question) through the CREST system; and |
| • |
CREST members to make electronic dividend
elections to share issuers (e.g. elections as to currency,
scrip issues or dividend re-investment plans) by CREST
message. |
The specimen documentation includes a draft set of Articles
of Association, a sample pro-forma mandate, a notice for sending
by issuers to shareholders, and a sample dividend election
form. The specimen documentation can be found on CRESTco Ltd's
website which is located at: http://www.crestco.co.uk/basic/publications/model_wording/payment-of-dividends.html
6.2 Disclosure of Auditor Remuneration - Draft Regulations
Issued by DTI for Consultation
The DTI published draft regulations on 6 January 2005 for
consultation which would require all companies which are not
classified as "small" or "medium" sized
companies (i.e.- those that need to file a full set of accounts
at Companies House) to disclose details of all remuneration
paid to its auditors for audit and all other services supplied.
The regulations are likely to come into force on 1 October
2005 and are designed to address concerns that have previously
been expressed about potential conflicts of interest which
may arise between an accountancy firm's role as auditor to
a company and as the provider to that company (or associated
company) of other non-audit related services. The draft regulations
propose that each service and all remuneration (of whatever
kind) paid for that service must be separated out individually
in the notes to the financial statements. It will be a criminal
offence for any director who fails to disclose all relevant
information. Further details are contained in the DTI's consultation
paper which can be located at: http://www.dti.gov.uk/consultations/files/publication-1423.pdf.
If you require further information on any matter covered
in this note, please contact your principal contact at Charles
Russell or Simon
Gilbert, Katy
Knight, Clive
Hopewell or Alexander
Keepin (London), Francis
Rundall or Richard
Norton (Cheltenham) or Catherine
Drew or Geoff
Sparks (Guildford) on 0207 203 5000.
To download these articles in pdf format, please click
here
Please note that the summaries above are
a general indicative guide only. They are not exhaustive.
This information has been prepared by the firm as a service
to our clients. As it is a general guide, we recommend that
you seek professional advice before taking action. No liability
can be accepted by the firm for any action taken or not taken
as a result of this information. The firm is not authorised
under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 but we are
able in certain circumstances to offer a limited range of
investment services to clients because we are members of the
Law Society. We can provide these investment services if they
are an incidental part of the professional services we have
been engaged to provide.
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