Companies Act

01

Purpose and legislative effect

“The Cabinet Secretary must bring the remaining provisions into operation by notice in the Gazette; if the Cabinet Secretary fails to commence them within nine months, Parliament may bring those provisions into operation by resolution of each House.”

The Cabinet Secretary must bring the remaining provisions into operation by notice in the Gazette; if the Cabinet Secretary fails to commence them within nine months, Parliament may bring those provisions into operation by resolution of each House. The Act's objects are to facilitate commerce, industry and other socio-economic activities by enabling one or more natural persons to incorporate as entities with perpetual succession, with or without limited liability, and to provide for the regulation of those entities in the public interest, particularly in the interests of their members and creditors. Section 3 sets out interpretation rules and many defined terms used in the Act, including rules on "address", "company", share capital references, insolvency references, and that definitions apply unless the context otherwise requires. Defines when a company is taken to control another company's board: if it can appoint or remove all or a majority of the other's directors without any other person's consent, and sets related rules about how shares and powers held in fiduciary, nominee, subsidiary, debenture or security contexts are treated for that definition. Section 10 is titled "Public companies".