Companies Act 1948

19 (1) A report by the auditors of the company with respect to—

(a) profits and losses and assets and liabilities, in accordance with sub-paragraph (2) or (3) of this paragraph, as the case requires ; and

(b) the rates of the dividends, if any, paid by the company in respect of each class of shares in the company in respect of each of the five financial years immediately preceding the issue of the prospectus, giving particulars of each such class of shares on which such dividends have been paid and particulars of the cases in which no dividends have been paid in respect of any class of shares in respect of any of those years;

and, if no accounts have been made up in respect of any part of the period of five years ending on a date three months before the issue of the prospectus, containing a statement of that fact.

(2) If the company has no subsidiaries, the report shall—

(a) so far as regards profits and losses, deal with the profits or losses of the company in respect of each of the five financial years immediately preceding the issue of the prospectus ; and

(b) so far as regards assets and liabilities, deal with the assets and liabilities of the company at the last date to which the accounts of the company were made up.

(3) If the company has subsidiaries, the report shall—

(a) so far as regards profits and losses, deal separately with the company's profits or losses as provided by the last foregoing sub-paragraph, and in addition, deal either—

(i) as a whole with the combined profits or losses of its subsidiaries, so far as they concern members of the company ; or

(ii) individually with the profits or losses of each subsidiary, so far as they concern members of the company ;

or, instead of dealing separately with the company's profits or losses, deal as a whole with the profits or losses of the company and, so far as they concern members of the company, with the combined profits or losses of its subsidiaries; and

(b) so far as regards assets and liabilities, deal separately with the company's assets and liabilities as provided by the last foregoing sub-paragraph and, in addition, deal either—

(i) as a whole with the combined assets and liabilities of its subsidiaries, with or without the company's assets and liabilities; or

(ii) individually with the assets and liabilities of each subsidiary;

and shall indicate as respects the assets and liabilities of the subsidiaries the allowance to be made for persons other than members of the company.