Power to acquire shares of shareholders dissenting from scheme or contract approved by 90% majority
215.—(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 (referred to in this section as the transferor company) to another company or corporation (referred to in this section as the transferee company) has, within 4 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 90% of the total number of those shares (excluding treasury shares) or of the shares of that class (other than shares already held at the date of the offer by the transferee company, and excluding any shares in the company held as treasury shares), the transferee company may at any time within 2 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 14 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 2 or more alternative sets of terms upon the terms which were specified in the offer as being applicable to dissenting shareholders.
[15/84; 8/2003; 21/2005]
(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 shares of the dissenting shareholders until 14 days after the posting of the statement of such 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 the transferee company at the date of the transfer comprise or include 90% of the total number of the shares (excluding treasury 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 3 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.
[8/2003; 21/2005]
(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 14 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, it may, after the expiration of 2 years and shall before the expiration of 10 years from the date on which such consideration was allotted or transferred to it, transfer such consideration to the Official Receiver.
(7)  The Official Receiver shall sell or dispose of any consideration so received in such manner as he thinks fit and shall deal with the proceeds of such sale or disposal as if it were moneys paid to him in pursuance of section 322.
(8)  In this section, dissenting shareholder includes a shareholder who has not assented to the scheme or contract and any shareholder who has failed or refused to transfer his shares to the transferee company in accordance with the scheme or contract.
(9)  For the purposes of this section, shares held or acquired —
(a)by a nominee on behalf of the transferee company; or
(b)by a related corporation of the transferee company or by a nominee of that related corporation,
shall be treated as held or acquired by the transferee company.
[8/2003]
(10)  The reference in subsection (1) to shares already held by the transferee company includes a reference to shares which the transferee company has contracted to acquire but that shall not be construed as including shares which are the subject of a contract binding the holder thereof to accept the offer when it is made, being a contract entered into by the holder for no consideration and under seal or for no consideration other than a promise by the transferee company to make the offer.
[8/2003]
(11)  Where, during the period within which an offer for the transfer of shares to the transferee company can be approved, the transferee company acquires or contracts to acquire any of the shares whose transfer is involved but otherwise than by virtue of the approval of the offer, then, if —
(a)the consideration for which the shares are acquired or contracted to be acquired (referred to in this subsection as the acquisition consideration) does not at that time exceed the consideration specified in the terms of the offer; or
(b)those terms are subsequently revised so that when the revision is announced the acquisition consideration, at the time referred to in paragraph (a), no longer exceeds the consideration specified in those terms,
the transferee company shall be treated for the purposes of this section as having acquired or contracted to acquire those shares by virtue of the approval of the offer.
[8/2003]
[UK, 1948, s. 209; UK, 1985, ss. 428, 429; Aust., 1961, s. 185; HK, s. 168]