New Ltd. is a company in which Old Ltd. is holding 65% of its paid up share capital. One of the shareholder of Old Ltd. made a charitable trust and…

CA Intermediate · Corporate and Other Laws · MTP · September 2024
New Ltd. is a company in which Old Ltd. is holding 65% of its paid up share capital. One of the shareholder of Old Ltd. made a charitable trust and donated his 10% shares in Old Ltd. and 50 crore to the trust. He appoints New Ltd. as the trustee. All the assets of the trust are held in the name of New Ltd. Can a subsidiary hold shares in its holding company in this way?

Suggested Answer and Working Notes:

(a) According to section 19 of the Companies Act, 2013 a company shall not hold any shares in its holding company either by itself or through its nominees. Also, holding company shall not allot or transfer its shares to any of its subsidiary companies and any such allotment or transfer of shares of a company to its subsidiary company shall be void. Following are the exceptions to the above rule: (a) where the subsidiary company holds such shares as the legal representative of a deceased member of the holding company; or (b) where the subsidiary company holds such shares as a trustee; or (c) where the subsidiary company is a shareholder even before it became a subsidiary company of the holding company but in this case it will not have a right to vote in the meeting of holding company. In the given case one of the shareholders of holding company has transferred his shares in the holding company to a trust where the shares will be held by subsidiary company. It means now subsidiary will hold shares in the holding company. But it will hold shares in the capacity of a trustee. Therefore, we can conclude that in the given situation New Ltd. can hold shares in Old Ltd.

Topics: Share Capital and Debentures

Open in Interactive Practice Hub · Full Practice Hub · Chapter Weightage · More in this subject

Related Questions in this Topic