(It had echoes of the infamous High Court shareholder dispute concerning Terry Venables and Alan Sugar over Tottenham Hotspur FC – in this case El Tel was left with a large legal bill running into hundreds of thousands, whilst Sugar ended up with a club worth over £100 million!)
Well, if your company has a number of shareholders, but no Shareholders Agreement and the Articles of Association came ‘free’ with the £99 Company formation kit you signed up for 10 years ago, then you really ought to read on.
And, whether or not a minority shareholder has been “oppressed” within the strict meaning of Section 994 of the Companies Act 2006, as soon as a shareholder owning less than 50% of a company has a problem and consults their lawyers they will pretty soon be threatening a Court Petition under this legislation
Of course, such cases are expensive, protracted and usually acrimonious. They are fought out whilst the Company is still trading and can have a hugely detrimental effect on the company’s performance as the wrangling goes on.