Trustee Act 1898

If securities of a body corporate are subject to a trust, the trustee may concur in any scheme or arrangement – for, or arising out of, the reconstruction, reduction of capital or liquidation of, or the issue of shares by, the body corporate; or for the sale of all or any part of the property and undertaking of the body corporate to another body corporate; or for the acquisition of securities of the body corporate, or of control of the body corporate, by another body corporate; or for the amalgamation of the body corporate with another body corporate; or for the release, modification or variation of rights, privileges or liabilities attached to the securities, or any of them – in the same manner as if the trustee were beneficially entitled to the securities.

The trustee may accept instead of, or in exchange for, the securities subject to the trust securities of any denomination or description of another body corporate party to the scheme or arrangement.

If a conditional or preferential right to subscribe for securities in a body corporate is offered to a trustee in respect of a holding in that body corporate or any other body corporate, the trustee may, as to all or any of the securities – exercise the right and apply capital money subject to the trust in payment of the consideration; or assign to any person, including a beneficiary under the trust, the benefit of the right, or the title to the right, for the best consideration that can be reasonably obtained; or renounce the right.

A trustee accepting or subscribing for securities under this section is, for the purposes of any provision of this Part, exercising a power of investment.

A trustee may retain securities accepted or subscribed for under this section for any period for which the trustee could properly have retained the original securities.

The consideration for an assignment made under subsection (3)(b) must be held as capital money of the trust.

This section applies in relation to securities acquired before or after the commencement of this section but subject to the provisions of the instrument creating the trust.