4. After section 228 of the 1985 Act insert the following–
228A.—(1) A company is exempt from the requirement to prepare group accounts if it is itself a subsidiary undertaking and its parent undertaking is not established under the law of an EEA State, in the following cases –
(a)where the company is a wholly-owned subsidiary of that parent undertaking;
(b)where that parent undertaking holds more than 50 per cent of the shares in the company and notice requesting the preparation of group accounts has not been served on the company by shareholders holding in aggregate–
(i)more than half of the remaining shares in the company, or
(ii)5 per cent of the total shares in the company.
Such notice must be served not later than six months after the end of the financial year before that to which it relates.
(2) Exemption is conditional upon compliance with all of the following conditions–
(a)that the company and all of its subsidiary undertakings are included in consolidated accounts for a larger group drawn up to the same date, or to an earlier date in the same financial year, by a parent undertaking;
(b)that those accounts and, where appropriate, the group’s annual report, are drawn up in accordance with the provisions of the Seventh Directive (83/349/EEC) (where applicable as modified by the provisions of the Bank Accounts Directive (86/635/EEC) or the Insurance Accounts Directive (91/674/EEC)), or in a manner equivalent to consolidated accounts and consolidated annual reports so drawn up;
(c)that the consolidated accounts are audited by one or more persons authorised to audit accounts under the law under which the parent undertaking which draws them up is established;
(d)that the company discloses in its individual accounts that it is exempt from the obligation to prepare and deliver group accounts;
(e)that the company states in its individual accounts the name of the parent undertaking which draws up the group accounts referred to above and–
(i)if it is incorporated outside Great Britain, the country in which it is incorporated, and
(ii)if it is unincorporated, the address of its principal place of business;
(f)that the company delivers to the registrar, within the period allowed for delivering its individual accounts, copies of the group accounts and, where appropriate, of the consolidated annual report, together with the auditors' report on them; and
(g)subject to section 710B(6) (delivery of certain Welsh documents without a translation) that if any document comprised in accounts and reports delivered in accordance with paragraph (f) is in a language other than English, there is annexed to the copy of that document delivered a translation of it into English, certified in the prescribed manner to be a correct translation.
(3) The exemption does not apply to a company any of whose securities are admitted to trading on a regulated market of any EEA State within the meaning of Council Directive 93/22/EEC on investment services in the securities field.
(4) Shares held by directors of a company for the purpose of complying with any share qualification requirement are disregarded in determining for the purposes of subsection (1)(a) whether the company is a wholly-owned subsidiary.
(5) For the purposes of subsection (1)(b), shares held by a wholly-owned subsidiary of the parent undertaking, or held on behalf of the parent undertaking or a wholly-owned subsidiary, are attributed to the parent undertaking.
(6) In subsection (3) “securities” includes–
(a)shares and stock,
(b)debentures, including debenture stock, loan stock, bonds, certificates of deposit and other instruments creating or acknowledging indebtedness,
(c)warrants or other instruments entitling the holder to subscribe for securities falling within paragraph (a) or (b), and
(d)certificates or other instruments which confer–
(i)property rights in respect of a security falling within paragraph (a), (b) or (c),
(ii)any right to acquire, dispose of, underwrite or convert a security, being a right to which the holder would be entitled if he held any such security to which the certificate or other instrument relates, or
(iii)a contractual right (other than an option) to acquire any such security otherwise than by subscription.”