A minority shareholder should be cautious when starting this process, as it is expensive and time-consuming, but it is one of the most important safeguards to protect minority shareholders from potentially problematic corporate governance. It is recommended that you seek professional advice before starting this process to ensure you have a strong case. If a minority shareholder believes that management acted with intent to defraud a person or exercised its power in a manner that is oppressive or unfairly biased or that does not take into account the interests of the minority shareholder (often reducing the value of the minority interest), the minority shareholder may bring an action against the majority shareholder(s) and seek appropriate redress. In the case of private companies, especially small private companies, shares cannot be easily valued and sold on a public stock exchange. Without state laws that grant certain rights and protections to minority shareholders in narrow companies, these minority shareholders are particularly vulnerable to the repressive actions of majority shareholders, and they have few opportunities to quickly sell their interests or protect their investments. However, if the majority shareholder uses repressive tactics to freeze a minority shareholder, he can be held liable. Examples: There are even steps that a majority shareholder can take to legally pressure a minority shareholder to sell their shares. For example, they can remove the shareholder from the board of directors, terminate the shareholder`s employment relationship, or prevent the company from doing business with the shareholder as long as those shares do not violate the shareholders` agreement. A shareholder rights lawyer can help you preserve and protect your rights before and after investing in a private company.

Miller Law Firm, P.C., is Michigan`s leading provider of shareholder rights. An important protection for minority shareholders is protection against unfair prejudices against them by majority shareholders and/or the management of the company, such as . B Directors. Often, these business leaders are also the majority shareholders. An act is considered unfairly affected if it violates the agreement between shareholders and a company and has a negative impact on a minority`s status as a shareholder. The protection of minority investors can have a significant impact on the valuation of companies. Research on 539 large firms in 27 economies shows that business valuation is higher in economies with good investor protection than in economies with low protection.3 Further research shows that firm risk appetite and growth rates are positively linked to the quality of the investor protection system. Better systems can lead companies to make riskier but value-added investments.4 A shareholder rights lawyer can help you determine what remedies you are likely to receive in your minority shareholder removal action. Our lawyers have recovered more than $2 billion in shareholder rights cases, including seven-figure settlements in many cases.

We offer a free initial consultation, so give us a call today or send us an online message to find out how we can help you protect your minority shareholder rights. An entity is prohibited from making a payment to a dissenting shareholder if there are reasonable grounds to believe that, after payment, the entity is or would not be able to meet its liabilities after maturity, or that the realizable value of the corporation`s assets would then be less than the sum of its liabilities. If the company cannot pay, a dissident has two options: minority shareholders have certain legal rights. Their minority shareholder rights are governed by the law of the State in which the company was founded. If a majority shareholder violates your minority rights or breaches their fiduciary duty, you may be entitled to remedies. However, the law provides a new form of protection for minority shareholders who do not agree with a particular fundamental change. This takes the form of a right to deviate from such a change and to ensure that the Corporation acquires its shares at fair value. The impact of the new right to dissent is potentially significant. A company faced with the payment of fair value to a large number of dissident shareholders could face liquidity problems. In practice, the existence of the right to dissent may, in certain circumstances, prevent the majority from making fundamental changes that it might otherwise have pursued.

A minority shareholder may have some power, but he does not have full control of the majority because he individually owns less than half of the company. Conversely, a majority shareholder is someone who has full control of a company by holding the majority of the company`s shares. Since a majority shareholder owns more than half of the company, this gives them power over the company`s decisions and limits the power of minority shareholders. .