Client
Minority shareholder
Category
Business
Outcome
Buy-out at full value
Two founders, fifty-fifty shares, and no deadlock provision anywhere in the articles.
The company was profitable and completely paralysed. Neither founder could pass a resolution and neither would sell. Our client, holding 50 per cent, had been excluded from management for nine months.
What we did
We issued an unfair prejudice petition under section 994 and, critically, applied for an interim order appointing a receiver over the company’s bank mandate. That removed the other side’s ability to sit and wait.
Outcome
A buy-out was agreed six weeks later at a valuation with no minority discount, on the basis that the exclusion was itself the prejudice.
