Companies Commission of Malaysia updates Guidelines on Company Names and revises two Practice Directives
08 November 2024
The Companies Commission of Malaysia (“
CCM”) has updated the Guidelines on Company Names and revised Practice Directive Nos. 1/2017 and 4/2018.
Set out below are the main changes in the updated and revised documents:
Guidelines on Company Names
Paragraph 14 of the Guidelines on Company Names issued on 25 June 2024 stipulates as follows:
“For words that are controlled by a Referral Authorities, a letter of permission is needed when applying for the said name. Refer to LAMPIRAN 1.”
However, LAMPIRAN 1 was inadvertently omitted from the said Guidelines.
1 The CCM has rectified this omission through an update issued on 17 September 2024. This update reinstates LAMPIRAN 1 which sets out a list of the Referral Authorities and the words under their respective control. The new LAMPIRAN 1 has been updated to include new words under the control of certain Referral Authorities, as well as the removal and addition of certain Referral Authorities.
2
The updated Guidelines can be accessed
here.
Practice Directive No. 1/2017 (Revised)
The objectives of Practice Directive No. 1/2017 issued on 31 January 2017 (“
Original P.D. No. 1/2017”) are:
- to specify the documents referred to in the Companies Act 2016 (“CA 2016”) for the purposes of lodgement with the Registrar or for execution by the directors, officers, members or company; and
- to determine the general requirements for the lodgement of the documents and related matters.
The Original P.D. No. 1/2017 has been amended by the Amendment of Practice Directive No. 1/2017 issued on 18 April 2017 (“Amendment No. 1”) and the Amendment of Practice Directive No. 1/2017 (No. 2) issued on 20 April 2018 (“Amendment No. 2”).
The CCM has issued a revised Practice Directive No. 1/2017 on 1 October 2024 (“Revised P.D. No. 1/2017”) which revises and incorporates the Original P.D. No. 1/2017, Amendment No. 1 and Amendment No. 2 so that the amendments made to the Original P.D. No. 1/2017 are now incorporated into a single document, i.e. the Revised P.D. No. 1/2017.
In addition, the Revised P.D. No. 1/2017 also amends the Original P.D. No. 1/2017 (as amended by Amendment No. 1 and Amendment No. 2) in the following respects:
- by replacing all references to the MyCoID 2016 Portal in the Original P.D. No. 1/2017 with references to an electronic filing system or electronic lodgement services;
- by reiterating in paragraph 4 the requirement under regulation 3 of the Companies Regulations 2017 that all applications for any matter specified in the Schedule shall be lodged or made, as the case may be, through the electronic filing system unless otherwise directed by the Registrar; and
- by introducing a new paragraph 21 to state that the Registrar has the power to amend or replace any documents or introduce new documents under the Practice Directive from time to time.
The Revised P.D. No. 1/2017 can be accessed
here.
Practice Directive No. 4/2018 (Revised)
The objectives of Practice Directive No. 4/2018 issued on 1 March 2018 (“
Original P.D. No. 4/2018”) are:
- to specify the documents referred to in Division 8, Part III of the CA 2016 for the purposes of lodgement with the Registrar or for execution by the directors, nominees, judicial managers, or an applicant to a voluntary arrangement or judicial management; and
- to determine the general requirements for the lodgement of the documents and related matters.
The Original P.D. No. 4/2018 has been amended by the Amendment of Practice Directive No. 4/2018 issued on 7 November 2018 (“
2018 Amendment”).
The CCM has issued a revised Practice Directive No. 4/2018 on 8 October 2024 (“
Revised P.D. No. 4/2018”) which revises and incorporates the Original P.D. No. 4/2018 and the 2018 Amendment so that the amendments made to the Original P.D. No. 4/2018 are now incorporated into a single document, i.e. the Revised P.D. No 4/2018.
The Revised P.D. No. 4/2018 can be accessed
here.
Comments
The reinstatement of LAMPIRAN 1 serves as helpful guidance for applicants to check beforehand whether any word in the name of their proposed entity or proposed new name for an existing entity is a controlled word, and if necessary to obtain a letter of permission from the relevant Referral Authority.
The Revised P.D. No. 1/2017 and Revised P.D. No. 4/2018 are welcomed as the revisions to Practice Directive Nos. 1/2017 and 4/2018 have now been consolidated into a single source for reference.
Alert by Tan Wei Liang (Senior Associate) and Faith Chan (Associate) of the Corporate Practice of Skrine.
1 Our article on the Guidelines on Company Names issued on 25 June 2024 can be accessed
here.
2 This is with reference to the previous LAMPIRAN 1 to the Guidelines on Company Names issued on 6 December 2022.
This alert contains general information only. It does not constitute legal advice nor an expression of legal opinion and should not be relied upon as such. For further information, kindly contact skrine@skrine.com.