MacRoberts Corporate Law e-update 01/10/08

DEATH OF THE CORPORATE DIRECTOR AND COMPULSORY RETIREMENT
AT 16?

From today, every UK company will require to have at least one director who is
a natural person (although there will be a grace period of two years for any company
that only had corporate directors on 8 November 2006). This means for most
companies it will no longer be possible to continue to trade with only corporate
directors.

A further change being introduced today is that all directors must be at least 16 years
of age. This will bring English and Welsh registered companies into line with their
Scottish counterparts which already have this minimum age requirement. Any
underage directors will cease to be directors on 1 October 2008 and Companies
House will automatically update the Register of Companies. It will be up to each
company so affected to update its register of members.

If you think your company might be affected by one or both of these changes, we
suggest reviewing your appointments as soon as possible. Companies in default of
the new rules face receiving a direction from the Registrar of Companies to put
matters right. Failure to comply with such a direction is a criminal offence for the
company and its officers, and could result in a fine of up to £5,000 and a daily default
fine of up to £500.

Other important changes introduced today (including the abolition of unlawful
financial assistance for private companies and new rules on directors' conflict of
interest) will be the subject of a separate e-update.

If you require any further information please contact Allan Kelly on 0131 229
5046 or Robert Burns on 0141 332 9988

© MacRoberts LLP 2008