Obligations for joint-stock companies
11.06.2014Company: Amcham
Important obligations for joint-stock companies under the Act on Certain Measures to Increase the Transparency of Joint-stock Companies and the Act on Supported Energy Sources
In order to increase the transparency of joint-stock companies certificated bearer shares that are not immobilised have been automatically transformed into certificated registered shares on 1 January 2014. Following the automatic transformation of the anonymous shares the Board of Directors is obliged file an application for registration of the new type of shares with the Commercial Register and deposit the updated Articles of Association with the Collection of Deeds by 30 June 2014 at the latest. Such measure to increase the transparency of joint-stock companies applies to all joint-stock companies regardless of their scope of business.
Provided that a joint-stock company produces electricity from renewable sources, the new obligations introduced by the amendment to the Act No. 165/2012 Coll. on Supported Energy Sources (the "SES") will also apply to such company.
The most significant change is the new duty of companies producing electricity from renewable sources (in joint-stock company form) to dematerialise all their shares and register them in the central register kept by the Central Securities Depository Prague (www.cdcp.cz) by 30 June 2014 at the latest. If joint-stock companies do not dematerialise their shares by the above deadline they will be deprived of the right to receive state subsidies.
The new obligations under the amended SES will most likely affect joint-stock companies producing electricity from renewable sources as a secondary business, apart from their main business activities, which did not outsource the operation of such activities to a separate company (e.g. to a subsidiary in the form of a limited liability company). If such electricity producers intend to continue receiving state subsidies they have no other option but to invest considerable amounts of money in the transformation of their shares.
