Finance (No. 2) Act 1997

6 (1) In this Schedule “initial period”, in relation to a company privatised by means of a flotation, means (subject to sub-paragraph (2) below) the period which— U.K.

(a) begins with the first day of the first financial year of the company to begin after the time of its flotation; and

(b) ends with the end of the fourth financial year of the company to begin after the time of its flotation.

(2) Where the initial period of a company privatised by means of a flotation would (but for this sub-paragraph) include any time on or after 1st April 1997, sub-paragraph (1) above shall not apply and the initial period of that company shall be taken, instead, to be the period which—

(a) begins with the day on which the time of its flotation falls; and

(b) ends with the end of the last financial year of the company to end before 1st April 1997.

(3) Where—

(a) sub-paragraph (2) above applies for determining a company’s initial period, and

(b) there is a financial year of that company beginning before but ending after the beginning of that initial period,

the amount which for that year is shown as mentioned in paragraph 5(2) above shall be included in the sums added together for the purposes of paragraph 5(1) above to the extent only that that amount is attributable, on an apportionment made in accordance with the following provisions of this paragraph, to the part of that year falling within the company’s initial period.

(4) Except in a case where sub-paragraph (5) below applies, an apportionment for the purposes of sub-paragraph (3) above shall be made on a time basis according to the respective lengths of—

(a) the part of the financial year falling before the beginning of the company’s initial period; and

(b) the remainder of that financial year.

(5) Where the circumstances of a particular case are such that—

(a) the making of an apportionment on the basis mentioned in sub-paragraph (4) above would work in a manner that would be unjust or unreasonable, but

(b) it would be just and reasonable to make the apportionment on the alternative basis,

the apportionment shall be made, instead, on the alternative basis.

(6) For the purposes of this paragraph an apportionment in the case of any company of the amount shown for any financial year as a profit for that year is made on the alternative basis where it is made according to how much of that profit accrued in each of the two parts of that financial year that are mentioned in sub-paragraph (4) above.