Governance

We are one of the UK’s largest providers of company secretarial services.

Who are we?

We help clients progress in a challenging financial world with confidence, supporting boards at all levels of maturity with ever-changing regulation, governance and shareholder engagement.

We have provided company secretarial services and corporate governance advice for more than 30 years and are one of the UK’s largest providers of company secretarial services.

How do we help?

With over 50 dedicated company secretaries and governance professionals with diverse backgrounds, skills, knowledge and experience, we know what good governance looks like.

We specialise in providing tailored support to company secretaries and boards of a wide range of companies in different sectors, countries and stages of maturity.

Whatever your scenario, you’ll receive practical support from a nominated team of the size and experience to meet your requirements.

Your partner in governance and compliance

Our services include:

• Full outsourced company secretarial support
• Board and committee meeting support
• Advising on legal and regulatory compliance in line with the Companies Act 2006, related regulations and your listing obligations
• Project managing your annual and half year report accounts and your AGM
• Maintaining statutory registers
• Health-check of statutory registers
• Overseeing governance and board processes, monitoring directors’ interests and conflicts
• Subsidiary governance
• Supporting you through corporate actions
• Director Training (Director induction, MAR or other)

What you need to do before, during and after your IPO

Whether you’re a private company, planning to list or already on the market, you’ll need appropriate controls and reporting in place to make sure your board is prepared for all the governance issues they may face.

We’ll give you practical advice to ensure a sound governance framework, that mitigates risk and gives you effective oversight, is in place.

We’ll guide your board and management pre-IPO and help you navigate the pre and post-IPO landscape to implement the reporting and regulatory environment of a listed company. Becoming PLC-ready is a big step behaviourally and culturally. We’re there for you every step of the way, with clear advice.

Being part of Link Group means we have access to a range of specialists to support your company’s growth journey.

Download our guide to IPO and beyond.

Specialised support for funds and real estate investment trusts

We act for over 30 investment funds – working with boards, investment managers and advisers to make sure governance requirements are met.

Our business has specialised in this area for over 30 years, helping you benefit from our extensive industry networks and stay ahead of change.

This experience means we support your board with the right advice at the right time, and you benefit from the appropriate governance arrangements.

Flexible resourcing

Company Matters can offer access to a pool of talented company secretaries, allowing you to benefit from the breadth and depth of experience that sits within our team, as and when you need them.

They can work alongside your existing team or in a stand-alone capacity.

This agile solution covers you for:

• Sickness or holiday absence
• Maternity Leave
• Stop-gap whilst your look at permanent recruitment
• Short term support during a busy period or transaction
• Statutory compliance on-going work or tidy-up projects
• Support with your Annual Report
• Additional or on-going meetings support
• Advise on projects/delivery of project work

We can support you remotely or onsite and will always ensure the correct level of assistance for the work that you need.

Our flexible resourcing option can be taken on a short or long-term basis and, depending on the length of the engagement, is either charged on a daily or monthly rate at market competitive prices.

You have the peace of mind that you’re accessing resource that is supported in the background by the rest of the Company Matters team. All legal, HR and management obligations remain with Company Matters.

Entity governance

Within Company Matters, we have a dedicated entity governance team who provide regulatory compliance support to parent companies and their subsidiaries.

We provide the full suite of statutory compliance support from registers health checks to preparation and filing of all statutory forms:

• Company health checks to bring all records up to date
• Alignment of filings
• Preparation and filing of all statutory forms at Companies House
• Provision of a registered office facility
• Management of Directors’ dealing process
• Maintenance of Company’s Minute Books
• Listing of administration services
• Preparation of annual accounts approval minutes
• Share issue and share plan exercise support
• Establishment and maintenance of the Company’s Statutory Registers (Register of Directors and Secretaries, Register of Members, Register of Mortgage and Charges, Register of Conflict, PSC Registers, etc.) on Diligent Entities or equivalent online portal and provision of printed Reports/Registers upon request.
• On-going maintenance of group structure charts

The Ahead programme for governance professionals

We manage the Ahead programme as a community for governance professionals to discuss industry issues affecting them, explore corporate governance developments, and gain insights from like-minded professionals and experts.

At the core of Ahead is a programme of regular events, providing opportunities for you to connect with like-minded people.

Learn more about the Ahead programme.

Board diversity in AIM and FTSE small cap companies

This is a first of its kind report on the important subject of ‘diversity for smaller companies’.

Why did we undertake this piece of research? Easy, there is a lot of research measuring the FTSE 350  and whilst those companies account for a big slice of the economy not all of them are UK based and many are large global corporates.

Did you know that:

• Just 15 per cent of directors in AIM UK 50 are women
• Only five per cent of executive directors in the FTSE SMC 100 are women
• 42 per cent of the AIM UK 50 and eight per cent of the FTSE SMC 100 don’t mention board diversity in their annual report

View the report.

Contact us to find out more.