(1)No allotment shall be made of any share capital of a company offered to the public for sub-scription, unless the following conditions have been complied with, namely :—(a)the amount (if any) fixed by the memorandum or articles and named in the prospectus as the minimum subscription upon which the directors may proceed to allotment; or(b)if no amount is so fixed and named, then the whole amount of the share capital so offered for subscription, has been subscribed, and the sum payable on application for the amount so fixed and named, or for the whole amount offered for subscription, has been paid to and received in cash by the company.(2)The amount so fixed and named and the whole amount aforesaid shall be reckoned exclusively of any amount payable otherwise than in cash, and is in this Act referred to as the minimum subscription.(3)The amount payable on application on each share shall, not be less than five per cent, of the nominal amount of the share.(4)If the conditions aforesaid have not been complied with on the expiration of one hundred and twenty days after the first issue of the prospectus all money received from applicants for shares shall be forthwith repaid to them without interest, and if any such money is not so repaid within on hundred and thirty days after the issue of the prospectus, the directors of the company shall be jointly and severally liable to repay that money with interest at the rate of seven, per cent, per annum from the expiration of the one hundred and thirtieth day: Provided that a director shall not he liable if he proves that the loss of the money was not due to any misconduct or negligence on his part.(5)Any condition requiring or binding any applicant for shares to waive compliance with any requirement of this section shall be void.(6)This section, except sub-section (3) thereof, shall not apply to any allotment of shares subsequent to the first allotment of shares offered to the public for subscription.(7)In the case of the first allotment of share capital payable in cash of a company which does not issue any invitation to the public to subscribe for its shares, no allotment shall be made unless the minimum subscription (that is to say),—(a)the amount (if any) fixed by the memorandum or articles and named in the statement in lieu of prospectus as the minimum subscription upon which the directors may proceed to allotment; or(b)if no amount is so fixed and named, the whole amount of the share capital other than that issued or agreed to be issued as fully or partly paid up otherwise than in cash; has been subscribed and an amount not less than five per cent, of the nominal amount of each share payable in cash has been paid to and received by the company.(8)Sub-section (7) shall not apply to a private company or to a company which has allotted any shares or debentures before the commencement of this Act.
