CO129-354 - Public Offices & Others - 1908 — Page 32

31

Deeds of Settlement were registered as Limited Liability Companies under the provisions of the Hongkong Com- panies Ordinance 1665 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; the se Companies are mostly Marine and Fire Insurance Com- panies. Thirdly there are Companies such as the Shanghai Gas Company Limited which carry on their business entirely cutside 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 for

similar Companies carry on business at Tientsin and,

I believe, in Japan. In the case of all these com- panies 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 regis-

tered office within the Colony and the Ordinances fur- ther provide that each Company must keep its register of shareholders, as its registered office. As a matter

(Pat)

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

It

ade

eas