31
Deeds of Settlement were registered as Limited Liability Companies under the provisions of the Hongkong Companies Ordinance 1865 and amending Ordinances. There are roughly speaking three kinds of Companies which are so registered under these Ordinance. There are Firstly Companies which are Hongkong Companies pure and simple, the whole of whose property is situated within the Colony. There are Secondly Companies which while having their Head Office in Hongkong carry on business in Hongkong, Shanghai and elsewhere; these Companies are mostly Marine and Fire Insurance Companies. Thirdly there are Companies such as the Shanghai Gas Company Limited which carry on their business entirely outside of the Colony and have no property of any kind within the Colony. It is not only in Shanghai that companies of this kind exist; similar Companies carry on business at Tientsin and, I believe, in Japan. In the case of all these companies while the registered office of the Company is situated in Hongkong the Head Office is situated in Shanghai or wherever else the Company may be carrying on business.
Under the provisions of the Hongkong Companies Ordinances each Company must have its registered office within the Colony and the Ordinances further provide that each Company must keep its register of shareholders at its registered office. As a matter of fact however very few (if any) of the Companies of this third class do keep their registers at Hongkong. They keep them at their Head Office and when transfers of shares are made they are sent in to the Head Office and new scrip is issued by such Head Office without any references to Hongkong. Once a year a list of the shareholders is...
It
ade
eas