Finance (No. 2) Act 1997

2 The companies benefitting from windfalls. U.K.

(1) For the purposes of this Part a company in existence on 2nd July 1997 was benefitting on that date from a windfall from the flotation of an undertaking whose privatisation involved the imposition of economic regulation if—

(a) that company, or a company of which it was on that date a demerged successor, had before that date been privatised by means of a flotation;

(b) there had, before that flotation, been a statutory transfer of property, rights and liabilities from a public corporation to the floated company or to a company which, at the time of the flotation, was a subsidiary undertaking of the floated company; and

(c) at the time of the flotation, the floated company was carrying on an undertaking whose privatisation involved the imposition of economic regulation.

(2) For the purposes of this Part a company was privatised by means of a flotation if—

(a) an offer of shares in that company was at any time made to the public in the United Kingdom;

(b) the shares which were the subject-matter of the offer were publicly-owned at the time of the offer;

(c) the offer was or included an offer of shares for disposal at a fixed price; and

(d) shares in that company were first admitted to listing on the Official List of the Stock Exchange in pursuance of an application made in connection with the offer.

(3) In this Part references, in relation to a company privatised by means of a flotation, to the time of the company’s flotation are references to the time when shares in the floated company were first admitted to listing on the Official List of the Stock Exchange.

(4) For the purposes of this Part a company in existence on 2nd July 1997 (“the relevant company”) was on that date a demerged successor of a company privatised by means of a flotation if—

(a) after the flotation of the floated company but before 2nd July 1997, there had been a statutory transfer of property, rights and liabilities from the floated company to a company (“the transferee company”) which was a subsidiary undertaking of the floated company at the time of the transfer;

(b) the transferee company was not a subsidiary undertaking of the floated company on 2nd July 1997 but was, on that date, a subsidiary undertaking of the relevant company; and

(c) before 2nd July 1997 shares in the relevant company had been admitted to listing on the Official List of the Stock Exchange in pursuance of an application made in connection with the transaction, or series of transactions, by virtue of which the transferee company ceased to be a subsidiary undertaking of the floated company.

(5) For the purposes of this section a company was, at the time of its flotation, carrying on an undertaking whose privatisation involved the imposition of economic regulation if that company, or a company which at that time was a subsidiary undertaking of that company, was at that time—

(a) a public telecommunications operator, within the meaning of the M1 Telecommunications Act 1984;

(b) an airport operator in relation to an airport subject to economic regulation under Part IV of the M2 Airports Act 1986;

(c) the holder of an authorisation granted under section 7 of the M3 Gas Act 1986, as originally enacted (public gas suppliers);

(d) the holder of an appointment under section 11 of the M4 Water Act 1989 as the water undertaker for any area of England and Wales;

(e) the holder of a licence granted under section 6 of the M5 Electricity Act 1989 or Article 10 of the M6 Electricity (Northern Ireland) Order 1992 (licences authorising generation, transmission and supply of electricity); or

(f) a company authorised by a licence under section 8 of the M7 Railways Act 1993 to be the operator of a railway asset.

(6) In subsection (5) above “airport operator” has the M8 same meaning as in the Airports Act 1986.

Marginal Citations

M1 1984 c. 12.

M2 1986 c. 31.

M3 1986 c. 44.

M4 1989 c. 15.

M5 1989 c. 29.

M6 S.I. 1992/231 (N.I. 1).

M7 1993 c. 43.

M8 1986 c. 31.