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The Small Business Service (SBS), part of the DTI, has published its statistics on the numbers of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the UK for 2005. These statistics include incorporated and unincorporated businesses in the private sector, totalling some 4.3 million enterprises. They show that by far the most popular size of business is that of a small enterprise, with 99.3% of businesses falling into that category. Of the remainder, 0.6% were medium-sized and only 0.1% were large. In terms of business format, there were only 1,080,000 companies, compared to 2.7 million sole proprietors and 520,000 partnerships. However, the number of companies had increased by 5.9% during 2004, with the number of sole proprietorships remaining relatively steady and the number of partnerships decreasing. Enterprises are sized according to the number of employees they have: a “small” enterprise has between 0 and 49 employees; a “medium-sized” enterprise has 50 to 249 employees; and a “large” enterprise has 250 or more employees. |
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UK SME statistics for 2005 published See CLM: ¶1+ |
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Companies House advises customers to take extra care when sending them documents following the change by Royal Mail on 21 August 2006 to a “Pricing in Proportion” policy. Items with incorrect postage may be returned to the sender by Royal Mail. Customers are warned that accounts which arrive late for this reason will attract late filing penalties as normal. |
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Companies House advice on new Royal Mail pricing policy See CLM: ¶4069+ |
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NEWS ROUND-UP |
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The Takeover Panel has published Practice Statement 16 clarifying the effect of standstill agreements on the definition of “acting in concert”. A standstill agreement will not normally lead to the parties being considered as acting in concert with each other provided the agreement does not restrict any party from accepting, or agreeing to accept, an offer for the company’s shares. The same applies were the company’s financial or nominated adviser and/or its sponsor(s) and/or underwriter(s) are a party to the standstill agreement, rather than the company itself – for example, an agreement entered into at the time of an equity offering with a view to ensuring an orderly aftermarket in the company’s shares. The Panel should be consulted in advance where the standstill agreement is one to which neither the company (and/or its directors) nor its financial or nominated adviser, its sponsor(s) or underwriter(s) is a party – for example, an agreement between two shareholders - or in any other cases of doubt. The City Code on Takeovers and Mergers imposes obligations on persons “acting in concert” with a bidder. A standstill agreement is one between the company/its directors and a shareholder, which restricts the shareholder or directors from making or accepting an offer for the company’s shares, or from increasing or reducing shareholdings. |
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Takeover Panel – Practice Statement 16 See CLM: ¶6765 |
