This step-by-step guide is to help tidy up a situation when what should just be one share class appears twice and one of the share classes has a £0.00 nominal value, by merging the share classes.

This situation arises because the share class has been referred to by different names in the most recent statement of capital and latest shareholder list. 

Companies House send us the statement of capital and shareholder list as separate pieces of information, Inform Direct then looks to match the data. The system is unable to assume that they are the same class in situations where the names differ, so the class appears twice effectively.

In the below example the 'Number of shares' column shows the current statement of capital that Companies House are returning to us, here 1,000 'Ordinary' shares. 

The 'No. allotted to shareholders column' shows how many are owned by the shareholders as per the share class name on the latest shareholder list, in this example 'Ord'. 

Note: Had both the statement of capital and shareholder list referred to the class as 'Ordinary' or as 'Ord' this alert would not have appeared. It is only as a result of the inconsistency.

To resolve the situation please select the yellow pencil next to either of the 2 class records and select Merge with another share class. 

This will bring up the two records currently showing for the class. It will provide a drop-down box with a option to select which will be the correct class name going forward. 

Note: If there are multiple classes showing twice, the drop-down box will show all classes. Take care to ensure they are linked to the correct record.

A summary screen then appears to confirm how the shares will appear following the action.

Note: Nothing is submitted to Companies House by completing this merge. It is to ensure the class name shows correctly ahead of the filing.