Finance Act 2009

Relief not available where bond-holder acquires control of underlying asset

4 (1) But paragraph 3(1) does not apply (and, accordingly, section 48B(2) of FA 2005 applies by virtue of paragraph 2) in either of the following cases.

(2) The first case is where—

(a) at the time that the rights were acquired BH (or all of the connected bond-holders) did not know and had no reason to suspect that the acquisition enabled the exercise of the right of management and control of the bond assets to the exclusion of other bond-holders, and

(b) as soon as reasonably practicable after BH (or any of the bond-holders) becomes aware that the acquisition enables that exercise, BH transfers (or some or all of the bond-holders transfer) sufficient rights for that exercise no longer to be possible.

(3) The second case is where BH—

(a) underwrites a public offer of rights under the bond, and

(b) does not exercise the right of management and control of the bond assets.

(4) In this paragraph—

• “connected” is to be read in accordance with section 839 of ICTA, and

• “underwrite”, in relation to an offer of rights under a bond, means to agree to make payments of capital under the bond in the event that other persons do not make those payments.