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registered company

Last modified: Thu Feb 23 16:37:37 2006

The term `company' is widely used in an informal sense, to mean a group of people carrying on business together. However, a company only becomes a corporation (see: Corporation) -- acquiring an independent legal identity -- if it is registered under the terms of the Companies Acts (1985, 1989). To comply with this Act, the company submits its memorandum (see: MemorandumOfAssociation) and articles (see: ArticlesOfAssociation) to the Registrar of Companies. If they are satisfactory the Registrar issues a `Certificate of Incorparation'. This is the company's proof that it has corporation status.

Once a company has been incorporated, it takes on a separate identity from its members, and then continues to exist until it is `wound up' (see: WindingUp) or struck off (see: StrikingOffACompany).

A registered company can be limited (see: LimitedCompany) or unlimited (see: UnlimitedCompany) with respect to the member's liabilities for the company's debts. If it has a share capital, a limited company can be `public' or `private'. There are also some companies left that are limited by guarantee, rather than shares, although this designation is now defunct (see: LimitedByGuarantee).

So, in practice the types of registered company that now exist can be summarized thus: public or private limited by shares (see: LimitedByShares), public limited by guarantee (see: LimitedByGuarantee), private unlimited (see: UnlimitedCompany).

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