‘Beneficial owners’ now unveiled?

For these purposes a “beneficial owner” is defined as a natural person who directly or indirectly ultimately owns or exercises substantial control over an entity or an arrangement, who has a substantial economic interest in or receives substantial economic benefit from an entity or an arrangement directly or indirectly whether acting alone or together with other persons, on whose behalf an “arrangement” (a defined term) is conducted and who exercises significant control or influence over a person or arrangement through a formal or informal agreement. This definition is very broad and has no share-holding threshold and does not define what constitutes significant control or influence unlike some other jurisdictions with similar regulations. For example, the Companies (Beneficial Ownership Information) Regulations, 2020 of Kenya provides that to qualify one as a beneficial owner there is a threshold of at least ten percent (10 percent) of the issued shares of and voting rights in the company. Furthermore, these regulations define significant influence or control to mean participation in the finances or financial policies of the company.