Where shares are held as treasury shares, the company may at any time—
sell the shares (or any of them) for a cash consideration, or
transfer the shares (or any of them) for the purposes of or pursuant to an employees' share scheme.
The Secretary of State may by order provide that particular means of payment specified in the order are to be regarded as falling within subsection (2)(e).
If the company receives a notice under section 979 (takeover offers: right of offeror to buy out minority shareholders) that a person desires to acquire shares held by the company as treasury shares, the company must not sell or transfer the shares to which the notice relates except to that person.
An order under this section is subject to negative resolution procedure.