Financial Assistance for Share Purchases

Key Points

The applicable restrictions depend on the company and its holding-company structure. ACRA’s guidance distinguishes private companies from public companies and their subsidiaries, highlighting required approvals, creditor protection and fairness to the company and shareholders. Prepare the relevant resolutions and reasons before using the section 76 notification route. Do not treat the availability of a filing service as automatic permission to fund a share purchase.

Match Financial Assistance to the Correct Section 76 Notice

First identify the company’s status and holding-company structure. A loan to the buyer and a guarantee of another lender’s loan are both forms of financial assistance described by ACRA. For public companies and their subsidiaries, assess the approval, company-interest and creditor-protection conditions together; filing a notice is not a replacement for satisfying those conditions before the assistance is provided.

As practical preparation, create a dated record of the proposed assistance, its terms, the reasons and the approvals relied on. Then identify the applicable subsection before collecting attachments. The detailed notice guide has separate options under sections 76(9A), 76(9B), 76(9BA) and 76(10)(e), with different dates and documents. Do not upload a generic resolution and assume that every option has the same evidential requirements.

For example, the section 76(9B) route asks for the members’ resolution and directors’ solvency statement, while section 76(10)(e) asks for the notice and statement under section 76(10)(c). Specified PDF uploads have a 5 MB limit. An officer or CSP selects the correct company and notice type in Bizfile. Review the acknowledgement in the Bizfile Inbox after submission; the free, immediate notice service does not independently establish the transaction’s legal permissibility.