Business Law Winter Update
Restructuring shareholdings for strategic reasons The challenging economic conditions are forcing companies to assess to an unprecedented extent whether all of its shareholders are aligned to the business strategy. If there is any such non - alignment, how do businesses fund the exit of a non core shareholder in a tax efficient and legally compliant way particularly given the continued credit drought and the business need to protect cashflow? Looking to the future, what equity incentives can be offered to calibre employees to stimulate human capital led growth? Whether exiting existing or introducing potentially new shareholders, they all need to be aware of their rights and responsibilities to the other shareholders and the business as a whole going forward. In this e-shot, we examine a tax efficient structure by which companies can facilitate a shareholder exit, the benefits of tax efficient employee share options and related issues on an eventual company sale, as well as the continued value of having an agreement to govern the relationship between the shareholders and the company. We also consider recent cases which provide salutory tales on how easilty advisors and agents can lose out on success fees or commissions. We also highlight some of the things that we have been doing with our clients in the last 6 months as well as indicating what transactions and seminars are in our pipeline. If you require any further information relating to any of the following, please do not hesitate to contact a member of the company commerical team. Philip Stephenson | 
Philip Stephenson looks at the increasingly common practice of companies spreading the cost of share buybacks over a number of years for commercial reasons, and considers a number of deal structures from the dual perspective of tax efficiency and compliance with important Companies Act requirements.
Nitzan Cohen considers the potential growth benefits to a company of offering Enterprise Management Incentive (“EMI”) share options to its employees and issues that may arise in relation to those options during a company sale process.
Jonathan Steele explains how a Shareholders’ Agreement can add value to the relationship between the shareholders and the company
Ena Hunter explains what we have been up to in the last 6 months:
Mark Lucas reports on the latest UK200Group SME Valuation report:
