CentreO Blog

The main purposes of company law are:

i)            To protect the creditors, and

ii)           To protect the investors of the company.

+ there are several fundamental legal concepts, pertaining to company law. They are:

a)  Legal Personality

As we have mentioned in the previous post, a limited company is an artificial person and is regarded by law as having a separate legal entity distinct from its members (Salomon v Salomon & Co Ltd (1987)). A limited company has a legal capacity to make contracts, take legal action, own property, sue or be sued as a natural person.

b)  Perpetual Succession

A company does not automatically dissolve with the death or bankruptcy of the owner or any of the partners. It will continue in existence until it is dissolved by a court order or by liquidation, e.g. Jardine Matheson Group over 100 years.

c)   Limited Liability

It refers to the concept that members of a limited company have a limited liability to the extent of any amount unpaid on their shares.

d)  Restriction of Business Activities

The business or activities of a company is restricted or regulated or regulated by its memorandum and articles of association, the Companies Ordinance, etc.

 

Limited Company is the most popular form of business organization in Hong Kong. So a common interest in the nature and legal aspects of limited companies is quite natural.

What types of limited companies are there?

There are three different types of business organization in Hong Kong, they are:

Sole proprietorship

Partnership

Company 

Sole Proprietorship

As implied by its name, this is a business owned by one person. In simple terms – it’s all on you: resources, profits, risks, etc. There are no specific registration requirements for this type of business. There is no need to registry with Companies Registry. What you need is to obtain a business registration certificate, by completing Form 1(a) within one month of commencement of business.

Partnership

This is a business owned by at least 2 (but no more than 20) partners. The partners share resources and profits and equally liable for the debts of the company.

Note: in case of unlimited company at least one partner should bare unlimited liability.

There are no restrictions on partnership’s business unless it is illegal. A business registration certificate by submitting Form 1(c) must also be obtained within one month of commencement of business.

If a limited company consists of more than 20 people, it must be registered with the Companies Registry.

Company

The law governing the legal requirement of a limited company in Hong Kong is the Companies Ordinance (Cap 32). This is a company formed and registered under the Companies Ordinance with Companies Registry (Section 2).

So what is a registered company?

It is a separate legal entity distinct from its members. This point needs to be emphasized, as the company has perpetual succession, unaffected by the change of its membership, or the death, bankruptcy or mental disorder of any member. The company’s debts are not enforceable against its members. It will continue in existence unless it is dissolved by court or by liquidation.

 

 

A few blogs before we talked about how to sleep better during flights.  This time we would like to share a great website that can help you plan your trip (and even your sleep) in extensive detail.

Behold www.seatguru.com.

On the website you can:

–       see seat maps

–        find out about flight shipping and information,

–       get seating advice,

–       read user comments and see photos.

You have a chance to find out seat length and width, leg room, amenities and basically everything there is to know about your flight from within.

Reviews are especially helpful, as you can read about people’s first-hand flying experiences and the extent of detail you get from their comments is amazing.

Reading about my upcoming flight to Thailand on Emirates A380, I learnt which seats are best to book and which are right above the crew’s office and as a result are too noisy.

I found out what menu options I should pre-order as a vegetarian, what amount of legroom I should expect and even how to win the armrest battle.