Corporate and Commercial: What are articles of association?

Think of these as the constitution or rule book of the company. All UK companies are required to have articles of association, although not all shareholders and directors are aware they exist(!). They can be in a standard form (known as Model or Table A articles) or tailored to cover the bespoke requirements of companies, covering areas including: directors powers, meeting requirements (e.g. notice periods), voting and dividend rights for different classes of shares.

Articles of association must be filed at Companies House, so are publicly available. For this reason, some companies also have a separate shareholders’ agreement covering some of the same areas, but in a private document which cannot be viewed by members of the public.