1. To transfer shares in your share registry on Orchestra, you will need to be logged in and have access as a company administrator to make any changes. From your dashboard, click the ‘Share register’ dropdown from the menu on the left of the page and select ‘Transfer / share issue’.
2. On the next page, select “Create a transfer” from the options available.
3. You will need to select who the shares are transferred from (i.e. the seller/transferor). When you choose the shareholder, their current shareholdings and share classes will be displayed. You will not be able to transfer shares that the existing shareholder doesn’t already hold (i.e trying to sell 'non-voting shares', when the shareholder owns 'voting shares'.
4. You will then need to select who the shares are transferred to (i.e. the buyer/transferee).
- If you are transferring shares to an existing shareholder, you can select their name from the dropdown menu under ‘New shareholder (to)’.
- If you are transferring shares to a new shareholder, click the 'Create a new shareholder' button and enter the details of the new shareholder.
Depending on the type of shareholder you are adding, you will need to enter certain information in the fields provided. The process is straight forward for an individual or a company, but can become a little trickier when trying to add a trust. To add a trust, you will need to add each of the trustees as 'Direct Parties'. More information on direct parties and how to add them is available in this article: What are Direct Parties?
5. Once the shareholders have been identified, you can specify the details of the transfer, including:
- class of shares
- number of shares being transferred
- share price (optional)
- date of transfer
Note: You can only transfer the maximum number and class of shares that the existing shareholder (seller) actually holds.
If one of your share classes has any transfer restrictions applied, you will see a yellow warning message notifying you of this.
6. (Optional) If you would like to attach any documentation to the share transfer, you can upload documents, which will be saved on the transaction in your transaction history for future reference. Shareholders that are a party to the transfer can access the document(s).
7. Once all details have been checked over, click ‘Continue’. A box will pop up confirming the details of your transfer before executing.
If you are happy that all details are correct, click 'Confirm', and the share register will be updated with the new transaction. The relevant shareholder's dashboards will also be updated with their new holdings, and they will be notified by email.
If you are a New Zealand company and the transaction has taken place with one of your top 20 shareholders as presented on the New Zealand Companies Office, the New Zealand Companies Office will automatically be updated immediately.
If you are an Australian company and Orchestra is acting as your ASIC agent, ASIC will be automatically updated within two business days.
If you have made an error with your share transfer, please just get in touch with the Orchestra team, and we can correct it for you quickly. You can reach us at: companies@orchestra.io