HL Deb 27 October 1981 vol 424 cc1014-5

123 After Clause 56, insert the following new clause:

("Application of section (Obligation to notify known interests in voting shares of a public company) in cases within section (Notification of certain family and corporate interests) or (Notification of group interests of persons acting together).

.—(1) References in section (Obligation to notify known interests in voting shares in a public company) of this Act to a person's acquiring any interest in shares or ceasing to be interested in any shares shall be read as including references to his becoming or ceasing to be interested in those shares by virtue of another person's interest.

(2) For the purposes of this section, a person becomes or ceases to be interested in any shares by virtue of another person's interest where he becomes or ceases to be interested in any shares by virtue of section (Notification of certain family and corporate interests) or (as the case may be) by virtue of section (Notification of group interests of persons acting together) of this Act, whether—

  1. (a) by virtue of the fact that the person who is interested in those shares becomes or ceases to be a person whose interests (if any) fall by virtue of either of those sections to be treated as his; or
  2. (b) in consequence of the fact that any such person has become or ceased to be interested in those shares; or
  3. (c) in consequence of the fact that he himself becomes or ceases to be a party to an agreement to which section (Notification of group interests of persons acting together) applies to which the person interested in those shares is for the time being a party or an agreement to which both he and that person are parties becomes or ceases to be one to which that section applies.

(3) Where a person becomes or ceases to be interested in any shares by virtue of another person's interest he shall be regarded for the purposes of section (Obligation to notify known interests in voting shares in a public company) of this Act as knowing he has acquired an interest in those shares or (as the case may be) that he has ceased to be interested in those shares if and when he knows both—

  1. (a) the relevant facts with respect to that other person's interest in those shares; and
  2. (b) the relevant facts by virtue of which he himself has become or ceased to be interested in those shares in accordance with section (Notification of certain family and corporate interests) or (Notification of group interests of persons acting together) of this Act.

(4) For the purposes of subsection (3)(a) above a person shall be regarded as knowing the relevant facts with respect to another person's interest in any shares if he knows (whether contemporaneously or otherwise either of the subsistence of that other person's interest in those shares at any relevant time or of the fact that that other person has become or ceased to be interested in those shares at any such time; and in this subsection "relevant time" means any time when that other person's interests (if any) fall or fell to be treated as his by virtue of section (Notification of certain family and corporate interests) or (Notification of group interests of persons acting together) of this Act.

(5) For the purposes of subsection (4) above (but without prejudice to its application apart from this subsection), a person shall be regarded as knowing of the subsistence of another person's interest in any shares or (as the case may be) that another person has become or ceased to be interested in any shares if he has been notified under section (Obligation of persons acing together to keep each other informed of relevant facts) of this Act of facts with respect to that other person's interest which indicate that he is or has become or ceased to be interested in those shares (whether on his own account or by virtue of a third person's interest in those shares).").

Lord Trefgarne

My Lords, I beg to move that this House doth agree with the Commons in their Amendment No. 123. This clause makes provision for the application of the general notification obligation for a person's actual interests to cases where interests are attributed to him under the new clauses covering family and corporate interests and group interests of persons acting together.

Moved, That this House doth agree with the Commons in the said amendment.—(Lord Trefgarne.)

On Question, Motion agreed to.