Companies Act 2014 section 142

Limitation on number of directorships

Section 142 sets a cap on the number of companies of which any one person may serve as a director at any given time, and provides a series of exemptions and exclusions that reduce the count in certain circumstances.

• A person may not be a director of more than 25 private companies limited by shares (or 25 companies of mixed type capable of being wound up under the Act) at any one time.
• Public limited companies, companies certified under section 140, certain licensed or exempt financial institutions, and companies listed in Schedule 5 are excluded from the count, as are group companies where one is the holding company of the others (which count as a single directorship).
• A company may be excluded from the count if the person or the company delivers a notice to the Registrar stating it falls within a specified category, and the Registrar (or the Minister on appeal) certifies this or the Minister directs exclusion.
• Where the Registrar refuses certification, an appeal may be made to the Minister, who can confirm the refusal, grant the certificate, or — in cases involving pre-18 April 2000 directorships where serious injustice or hardship would otherwise result — direct that the company be excluded from the count provided this does not operate against the common good.

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