Companies Act 2014 section 497

Electronic means of making certain information available for purposes of section 496

Section 497 allows companies involved in a division to use electronic means, such as email or their website, to make the required division documents available to shareholders instead of providing physical copies.

• Where a shareholder has consented to electronic communications, the company may send the division documents by email and must state this in the general meeting notice.
• Shareholders lose their right to request physical copies if the documents are made available free of charge for download on the company's website during a specified period.
• The website availability period must run continuously for at least two months, beginning at least 30 days before the general meeting to consider the draft terms of division and ending at least 30 days after that meeting.
• If access to the company's website is disrupted for a continuous period of at least 24 hours, or for separate periods totalling at least 72 hours, the required availability period must be extended by an equivalent amount of time.