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Companies

Cancel company shares

Key points:

  • Companies may decide to cancel shares.
  • Companies must tell us if they cancel shares.

Reasons for cancelling shares

A company may decide to cancel shares for several reasons. These include:

  • to reduce share capital
  • as part of a share buy-back
  • because they are redeemable preference shares.

Share cancellations must comply with the Corporations Act 2001 and the company’s constitution, if it has one.

Members may need to approve share buy-backs and capital reductions through a special resolution. See more about:

Tell ASIC about cancelled shares

All companies must notify us within one month after cancelling shares. You must tell us:

  • the number of shares cancelled
  • any amount paid by the company (in cash or otherwise) on the cancellation of the shares
  • the amount paid by the company if the shares are cancelled following a share buy-back
  • the class to which each cancelled share belonged.

Do this using the change of company details transaction on the company officeholder portal.

This applies to all types of share cancellation.

For some types of share cancellation, you will also need to lodge an additional form within a certain timeframe.