Companies Act 2014 section 1002

Application of Parts 1 to 14 to PLCs

Section 1002 sets out how the general company law provisions in Parts 1 to 14 of the Companies Act 2014 apply to public limited companies (PLCs), and identifies the specific provisions that are disapplied or do not apply to PLCs.

• Parts 1 to 14 of the Act apply to PLCs in the same way as they apply to private companies limited by shares, subject to specific exceptions listed in a detailed table of disapplications.
• Numerous provisions designed specifically for private companies — covering formation, constitution, naming, share allotment, the Summary Approval Procedure, majority written resolutions, audit exemptions, and small/medium company reliefs — are disapplied for PLCs.
• PLCs are prohibited from giving financial assistance for the acquisition of their own shares, and unlike private companies, they cannot use the Summary Approval Procedure to validate such transactions (except in limited circumstances such as members' voluntary winding up, pre-acquisition profit restrictions, and certain loans to directors).
• The default rule allowing directors of private companies to vote on contracts in which they have a personal interest does not apply to PLCs; instead, PLCs must address director conflicts of interest through their own memorandum and articles of association.