Shares in a company may be allotted or transferred to any number of holders (whether they are natural persons or corporate entities) to be held jointly, except subscriber shares. It is not possible for subscriber shares to be allotted on the basis that they are held jointly, as Companies House interprets sections 7 and 8 of the Companies Act 2006 (CA 2006) as requiring each subscriber for shares in a new company to be a single natural person or a single corporate entity.

In practice, it is common for a company to limit the maximum number of shareholders that may jointly own shares in its articles of association (usually to four, eg the model articles for a public company in art 53(5)(e) allow the directors to refuse to register a transfer to more than four transferees, as does 1985 Table A, reg 24).

If there is no limit on the number of shareholders that may jointly own shares set out in a company’s articles, many articles give directors a general right to refuse to register any share transfer (eg the model articles for a private company limited by shares, art 26(5)), which they might choose to do if a large number of joint transferees are included on a stock transfer form.

For more information on the directors’ power to refuse to register a transfer of shares, see