Assistant Company Secretary

Leading pub & hotel group are looking to expand their company secretarial division

The role:

The assistant company secretary supports the company secretary in providing the delivery of a first-class company secretarial service to the company and its subsidiaries. This broad role, in a fast paced, agile business, exposes the successful candidate to the Board, senior management, as well as a wide range of stakeholders from both within and external to the organisation.

Main duties and accountabilities:

Some of the tasks listed below will be the sole responsibility of the successful candidate; others will be carried out in conjunction with the company secretary.

The Board and its committees

• Assist the company secretary with the organisation of board and committee meetings and the preparation of papers for attendees
• Act as secretary to the audit committee, preparing minutes and action lists for the chair to review within agreed time frames
• Assist the company secretary in monitoring best practice and the provision of guidance and support to the board and its committees
• With the company secretary, arrange bi-annual board effectiveness assessments
• Help ensure good information flows within the board and its committees and between senior management and non-executive directors.

Company Secretarial

• Assist the company secretary with the full spectrum of company secretarial duties to ensure compliance with the AIM rules, Companies Act, Market Abuse Regulations and corporate governance guidelines (as applicable).
• Providing legal, regulatory and corporate governance guidance and support to the board, executive committee and wider business.
• Maintain the statutory and regulatory records and ensure timely filings with Companies House.
• The preparation and release of stock exchange announcements.
• Management of the investor section of the group’s website.
• Day to day management of the company’s registrars.

Annual and interim reports

• assist with the preparation of the company secretarial elements of the annual report and completion of associated compliance routines.
• manage the mail-out of annual and interim reports, including liaising with internal stakeholders, the registrar, designer, printer and mailing house.

Annual General Meeting

• managing the production of the notice of meeting (included within the annual report) and form of proxy.
• assist the company secretary with the planning and organisation of the AGM and, from time to time, other general meetings.
• liaising with the registrar and family shareholders regarding proxy voting.
• assisting with the preparation of the chairman’s script, Q&A and ‘top table’ packs.
• making the required filings with the stock exchange and Companies House.

Share dealings / share schemes / share issue management

• assisting with the management of the company’s share dealing code, including providing education and training, assisting with completion of clearance to deal paperwork and any Market Abuse notifications and issuing, as appropriate, stock exchange announcements.
• assisting with the management of the deferred annual bonus schemes (for directors and senior managers) and the all employee savings-related share option scheme, including preparing invitation and grant documentation with the scheme administrators and handling maturity and ad-hoc exercises.

Insurance

• assisting with the annual renewal of the group’s insurance programme, including liaising with the company’s broker and internal departments.
• attending quarterly insurance review meetings, providing day-to-day advice on insurance matters, overseeing claims and assisting with the review and submission of insurance-related documentation.

Trademarks

• assist with the management of the group’s trademark portfolio in conjunction with external trademark agents and the licensee of several the group’s marks, including trademark applications and renewals.

Compliance

• Work with the company secretary to ensure compliance with the AIM rules and MAR, creating and maintaining project lists, assisting with what needs to be done when the existence of inside information has been identified and the co-ordination of the annual ‘confirmation’ exercise with directors and nominees / custodians.
• annual review of policies for which the dept. is responsible.
• assisting with data protection, anti-bribery and modern slavery compliance.

General

• deputising for the company secretary.
• assisting with the preparation of the departmental budget and the management of costs against budget.
• transaction support.
• ad-hoc corporate projects.


Qualifications and experience

• Chartered Secretary or suitable legal qualification.
• 3-5 years of company secretarial experience in a PLC environment.
• A good working knowledge of UK Company Law and administration and corporate governance requirements is essential.
• Good project management skills, able to lead and organise peers to deliver key projects such as the annual report.

Personal attributes

• Ability to develop positive working relationships at all levels of the organization.
• Personable, credible and with strong communication skills both written and verbal.
• Highly organised, reliable and efficient.
• Proactive - able to take initiative.
• Excellent drafting skills and attention to detail.
• Always demonstrates integrity and discretion, especially when handling confidential information.
• Computer literate with a good knowledge of Microsoft Office including Outlook, Excel, Word and PowerPoint.


 


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