In this article, we are going to discover the process that is associated with setting up a public limited company. However, before the formation process begins, it can be incredibly important to remember that once the status of public limited company has been achieved, the suffix ‘PLC’ needs to be placed on the end of the company’s trading name and all future official correspondence.

If you are in England, Wales or Scotland, the process of establishing a public limited company is done through an independent body from the Government’s Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. If you were not aware already, this organisation is known as Companies House, and will be one of the main authorities that you are dealing with during this process.

There are two main types of management that can be vital when setting up a public limited company. They are the directors and secretaries who are at the helm of the organisation. Most people can be a director pending that they are not disqualified because of certain factors that can include bankruptcy, and the fact that a director is not a British citizen. Additionally, there also has to be at least two directors in a PLC.

Meanwhile, the secretaries of a company need to have experience in the capacity they are working under, and this can be established by the way that they have accreditation from an official organisation such as The Institute for Chartered Accountants, or an equivalent.

The intricacies of a PLC can vary depending on the types of shares which are being used within the company, as well as the distribution of shares amongst shareholders. Regardless of this structure, the process for setting up a public limited company is more or less the same.

If the process is being done offline, the same forms need to be filled in as with a private limited company. This means that Forms 10 and 12, the Articles of Association and the Memorandum of Association all need to be filed with Companies House.

In recent times, Companies House have enabled the process of filing to become a public limited company to be completed online, saving a significant amount of time and reducing the amount of paperwork which needs to be filed by the business. For example, those who use an online route will no longer require to fill in Form 12, or to have a witness in order to acknowledge the declaration which has been made.

By going to the website, the process of boosting the profile of a company can be established. Once a company is a public limited company, there is no reason why shares can’t be distributed amongst the public and why shares can’t be traded on the stock markets. For this reason, it could be argued that the advantages of being a PLC can begin to show themselves as soon as the documentation has been filed with Companies House and everything has been fully completed.