1. Many shareholders’ agreements (and some articles of association) include exit mechanisms in the form of call and put options. In the case of unlisted companies, these agreements are conceived as a regulation of corporate relationships, and mainly focused on terminating the shareholdership without requiring the intervention of the court or a third party-transferee. Financial investors, for instance, often negotiate for themselves a put option so that they will be able after a given period of time to valorize their investment, potentially at a guaranteed minimum price. Agreements between or with operationally active shareholders also often include options which, according…
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The “geschillenregeling” (forced sale proceeding) is a special procedure in corporate law in which a shareholder can oblige another shareholder to sell shares (i.e. a put obligation) or purchase shares (i.e. a call obligation) if there are ‘justified reasons’. Although in practice this procedure is often used when a (serious) conflict between shareholders has arisen, there are some flaws in its practical application. Perhaps one of the greatest shortcomings is the setting of the price of the shares concerned, in particular the low predictive value of the valuation exercises that are normally carried out by a court expert under supervision…
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