ACT 125
COMPANIES ACT 1965 (REVISED - 1973)
PART VII - ARRANGEMENT AND RECONSTRUCTIONS

 
Section 180. Power to acquire shares of shareholders dissenting from scheme or contract approved by majority.
 

(1) Where a scheme or contract involving the transfer of all of the shares or all of the shares in any particular class in a company (in this section referred to as the "transferor company") to another company or corporation (in this section referred to as the "transferee company") has within four months after the making of the offer in that behalf by the transferee company been approved as to the shares or as to each class of shares whose transfer is involved by the holders of not less than nine-tenths in nominal value of those shares or of the shares of that class (other than shares already held at the date of the offer by, or by a nominee for, the transferee company or its subsidiary), the transferee company may at any time within two months after the offer has been so approved give notice in the prescribed manner to any dissenting shareholder that it desires to acquire his shares and when such a notice is given the transferee company shall, unless on an application made by the dissenting shareholder within one month from the date on which the notice was given or within seven days of a statement being supplied to a dissenting shareholder pursuant to subsection (2) (whichever is the later) the Court thinks fit to order otherwise, be entitled and bound to acquire those shares on the terms which, under the scheme or contract the shares of the approving shareholders are to be transferred to the transferee company or if the offer contained two or more alternative sets of terms upon the terms which were specified in the offer as being applicable to dissenting shareholders.

(2) Where a transferee company has given notice to any dissenting shareholder that it desires to acquire his shares the dissenting shareholder shall be entitled to require the company by a demand in writing served on that company within one month from the date on which the notice was given to supply him with a statement in writing of the names and addresses of all other dissenting shareholders as shown in the register of members and the transferee company shall not be entitled or bound to acquire the share of the dissenting shareholders until fourteen days after the posting of the statement of those names and addresses to the dissenting shareholder.

(3) Where in pursuance of any such scheme or contract, shares in a company are transferred to another company or its nominee and those shares together with any other shares in the first-mentioned company held by, or by a nominee for, the transferee company or its subsidiary at the date of the transfer comprise or include ninetenths in nominal value of the shares in the first-mentioned company or of any class of those shares, then—

    (a) the transferee company shall within one month from the date of the transfer (unless on a previous transfer in pursuance of the scheme or contract it has already complied with this requirement) give notice of that fact in the prescribed manner to the holders of the remaining shares or of the remaining shares of that class who have not assented to the scheme or contract; and

    (b) any such holder may within three months from the giving of the notice to him require the transferee company to acquire the shares in question,

and where a shareholder gives notice under paragraph (b) with respect to any shares, the transferee company shall be entitled and bound to acquire those shares on the terms on which under the scheme or contract the shares of the approving shareholders were transferred to it, or on such other terms as are agreed or as the Court on the application of either the transferee company or the shareholder thinks fit to order.

(4) Where a notice has been given by the transferee company under subsection (1) and the Court has not, on an application made by the dissenting shareholder, ordered to the contrary, the transferee company shall, after the expiration of one month after the date on which the notice has been given or, after fourteen days after a statement has been supplied to a dissenting shareholder pursuant to subsection (2) or if an application to the Court by the dissenting shareholder is then pending, after that application has been disposed of, transmit a copy of the notice to the transferor company together with an instrument of transfer executed, on behalf of the shareholder by any person appointed by the transferee company, and on its own behalf by the transferee company, and pay, allot or transfer to the transferor company the amount or other consideration representing the price payable by the transferee company for the shares which by virtue of this section that company is entitled to acquire, and the transferor company shall thereupon register the transferee company as the holder of those shares.

(5) Any sums received by the transferor company under this section shall be paid into a separate bank account, and any such sums and any other consideration so received shall be held by that company in trust for the several persons entitled to the shares in respect of which they were respectively received.

(6) Where any consideration other than cash is held in trust by a company for any person under this section or under any corresponding previous enactment, it may, after the expiration of two years and shall before the expiration of ten years from the date on which the consideration was allotted or transferred to it, transfer the same to the Minister charged with the responsibility for finance.

(7) The Minister charged with the responsibility for finance shall sell or dispose of any consideration so received in such manner as the thinks fit and shall deal with the proceeds of the sale or disposal as if it were moneys paid to him pursuant to the law relating to unclaimed moneys.

(8) In this section "dissenting shareholder" includes a shareholder who has not assented to the scheme or contract and any shareholder who failed or refused to transfer his shares to the transferee company in accordance with the scheme or contract.