Press Releases

1. The Ministry of Finance is conducting a public consultation exercise to seek comments on the draft Companies (Amendment No 2) Bill 2004.

2. The draft bill 2004 includes proposed amendments arising from recommendations 2.18, 2.19, 2.21, 2.22, 2.24 and 5.8 made by the Company Legislation and Regulatory Framework Committee ("CLRFC") in their Final Report first published in October 2002 These recommendations relate to the following:

• Abolishing the concept of par value and authorized share capital;
• Introducing an alternative capital reduction process which does not require court sanction;
• Liberalising the financial assistance restrictions to allow financial assistance to be provided under additional circumstances;
• Allowing share-buyback to be funded out of profits as well as capital where supported by a declaration of solvency;
• Allowing repurchased shares to be held as treasury shares; and
• Introducing a more effective and efficient statutory form of merger/amalgamation process.

3. MOF would like to invite all interested parties to provide comments on the draft Bill. For further details please refer to the Ministry of Finance homepage at http://www.mof.gov.sg. Respondents may send in their comments in the prescribed format, via email to clrfc@mof.gov.sg or via fax to 63374134 or post to Ministry of Finance, 100 High Street #06-03, The Treasury, Singapore 179434. Members of the public can also access the documents through the Feedback Unit common consultation portal for all ongoing government consultations at http://www.feedback.gov.sg. The Ministry would request that all comments be submitted by 20 Sept 2004.

MINISTRY OF FINANCE