In this Part—

• “agreement” means agreement in writing,

• “company” means any body corporate,

• “debt securities” means any instrument creating or acknowledging indebtedness which is issued by a company (including, in particular, debentures, loan stock, bonds and certificates of deposit),

• “the original holding company” means the company that was nominated under section 62 of the Postal Services Act 2000 (transfer of property etc to nominated company),

• “post office” means any premises or vehicle in the United Kingdom from which postal services, or services provided under arrangements with a government department, are provided directly to the public,

• “Post Office company” has the meaning given by section 6,

• “relevant disposal” has the meaning given by section 2,

• “Royal Mail company” has the meaning given by section 2,

• “securities”, in relation to a company, includes—

  1. a

     shares, debt securities and other securities of the company (whether or not constituting a charge on the assets of the company), and

  2. b

     the right to subscribe for, or acquire, such securities and any other rights in connection with such securities,

• “shares” include stock,

• “share rights”, in relation to any shares, means—

  1. a

     rights to subscribe for or acquire the shares, and

  2. b

     any other rights in connection with the shares,

• “subsidiary” has the meaning given by section 1159 of the Companies Act 2006, and

• “wholly owned by the Crown”, in relation to a company, means the Crown owns all of it.

In this Part references to a person providing a universal postal service have the same meaning as in Part 3 (see section 65(2) and (3)).

In this Part references to a company's post offices (or network of post offices) are to those post offices (whether or not owned or operated by the company) that the company is engaged in providing.

For the purposes of this Part (other than Schedule 2) a company is to be regarded as being in the same “group” as another company if, for the purposes of section 1161(5) of the Companies Act 2006, the company is a group undertaking in relation to that other company.