Changing a company's name or type

A company's name and type change only when the Registrar has approved the change and the firm holds the evidence. Until then the change is a proposal, and the company stays as it is on every register. Start each one from Record a change in the company's header.

Change the company's name

Choose The company's name, give the new name and the reason. The change opens on its own page with its next step as the button.

1. Draft the resolution. A new name needs a special resolution of the members at a general meeting, so a board resolution is refused. It is drawn from a template you choose and tied to the meeting.
2. Hold the meeting. Serve its notice, record who attended, record it as held and name its chair, as in Meetings and resolutions. Then record the vote on the resolution. Once it passes, the application to the Registrar waits among the company's filings.
3. File the application. Take the filing through its draft, signed copy and submission, and confirm it when the Registrar answers. If the Registrar sends it back, record that on the filing: see Filings and the filing season.
4. Record the change. Give the Registrar's reference, the date approved and the date it takes effect, the written approval and the new certificate. The certificate must be in the company's statutory folder.

Recording changes the company's registered name on that date. The old name stays on the party as a former name, so a search for it still finds the company.

Convert the company to another type

Choose Conversion to another type and the type it becomes. Under Name on the new certificate, give the new name if it changes; left blank, the name stays as it is. The types a company may convert to are the firm's own setting, under Settings, Practice, Company secretarial, and so are the documents each type needs.

1. Keep the proposed constitution. It must be in the company's statutory folder, and it comes first, because the resolution adopts it.
2. Draft the resolution and hold the meeting, as for a new name. A conversion also needs a special resolution of the members.
3. Complete the conversion documents. The page lists what is still needed and keeps each document at the exact version you chose. A public company needs its statement in lieu of a prospectus, the original certificate and the new certificate. An unlimited company needs the members' agreement and the two certificates.
4. File the resolution with the Registrar and confirm it when the Registrar answers.
5. Record the change. Give the Registrar's reference and the effective date. Where the type requires it, record the day each director signed and the Registrar's written approval of the name.

Recording changes the company's type and, where it was proposed, its name. Filings that follow from the new type are raised then, each with its due date.

Withdraw a change

Withdraw the change on its page, with a reason, if the members decide against it. Nothing about the company changes, and the page stays as the record of what was proposed.

An external company's particulars

A company registered abroad is kept with the type External. Its party must have the same entity type. Choose An external company's particulars under Record a change, then give its home country, its parent company, its local representative, the date they apply from and the reason.

Each change is kept with its date, so the record shows who answered for the company at any time. The latest particulars show on the company. A company incorporated in Ghana cannot record them.