Thursday 3 January 2013

The Importance of a Shareholders’ Agreement

Year on year many small limited companies are successfully set up by family members, friends and former colleagues with great business ideas, yet for some such happy beginnings may not last. Disputes may arise shortly after the company’s birth or many years after, often as a result of changes in the strategy and management of the company.  Ranging from the differing or competing business interests of individual shareholders to the implementation of a contentious dividend policy creating an contentious salary disparity between shareholders, these disputes can have serious financial implications and can cause irrevocable damage to a small business.  Despite this fact, the drafting of a shareholders’ agreement, the pre-nup of the corporate variety, is often way down the to-do list when individuals decide to start-up a company.  Ironically, a well drafted and structured shareholders’ agreement can provide a company and its shareholders with the very protection and flexibility it needs to flourish and grow in a dispute free environment.
At FWJ, we are seeing an increasing number of boardroom disputes or disgruntled shareholders as businesses face ongoing difficult trading conditions.  These conflicts between directors and/or shareholders can seriously destabilise a business by distracting valuable management time away from the essentials of attracting customers, delivering the product and maintaining cashflow. We can, of course, assist parties in progressing a claim against a business partner, be it a co-director, another shareholder or as an investor against a single director or the entire board, or by helping parties arrive at a satisfactory settlement of any such dispute, but these actions can be slow, divisive and expensive.  As with your domestic arrangements, forward planning is the answer. So what is the best preventive treatment?
When setting up a new business, or becoming involved as a new director or shareholder-investor of an existing business it is always best practice to record in writing the internal agreements that will govern the relationship between you: how are the decision making powers divided between you?  How are they challenged?  How can you replace a director or shareholder?  How do you get your value out of the company in future? No-one wishes to appear to be uncommitted or planning for failure, but time and again, these questions, if not thought about and the parties’ agreements recorded, will have the capacity to cripple a business if they occur at a later stage.  As financial pressures on a company or its directors or members increase, so these issues become more prominent.  There is no need to wait until a problem actually occurs; would your company benefit from an interim health-check?  A full, open discussion between all the relevant parties may be difficult at the outset, but could result in a robust organisation containing committed and confident members who trust each other and are motivated to maintain their investment of time, money or skills for the greater benefit of the company and its trading counterparties.

If you are about to enter into a new or significant commercial relationship or, as a financier, you are looking at taking on a new client, or simply as part of your regular client audit, ask if they have adapted their articles to reflect how the business is intended to run in reality, rather than just adopting the statutory Model Articles or some company incorporation agent’s standard form that does not take into account this company’s specific circumstances or needs.  Is there an agreement between the shareholders governing the scope of shareholder influence and control of the distribution of the company assets either on an ongoing basis or on a sale or break up?  From a financier’s objective, would you be more attracted to a business where the owners and management demonstrated in their business plan and constitutional documents that they were well prepared and forward-looking in their housekeeping as well as their commercial thinking?

FWJ’s Shareholders and Directors Advice team can assist your company, or your client,
in developing structural documents such as modified articles of association or shareholder agreements suitable for your business needs. It is recognised that further capital outlay, at this difficult time, may not be attractive, but our experience of dealing with disputes where no prior agreements are in place indicates that there is merit in making this investment. Whilst having a shareholders’ agreement is not the complete inoculation against the problem, such an agreement, properly drafted, can help structure discussions between parties and assist in the effective negotiation of a pragmatic solution to enable the company to survive the difficult market conditions.


For more information on  the drafting or interpretation of shareholders’ agreements or any of above, please feel free to contact Andy Wilks  0207 841 0390.