So what do Owen Oyston and Terry Venables have to do with me?

(It had echoes of the infamous High Court shareholder dispute concerning Terry Venables and Alan Sugar over Tottenham Hotspur FC – in this case El Tel was left with a large legal bill running into hundreds of thousands, whilst Sugar ended up with a club worth over £100 million!)

Well, if your company has a number of shareholders, but no Shareholders Agreement and the Articles of Association came ‘free’ with the £99 Company formation kit you signed up for 10 years ago, then you really ought to read on.

And, whether or not a minority shareholder has been “oppressed” within the strict meaning of Section 994 of the Companies Act 2006, as soon as a shareholder owning less than 50% of a company has a problem and consults their lawyers they will pretty soon be threatening a Court Petition under this legislation

Of course, such cases are expensive, protracted and usually acrimonious. They are fought out whilst the Company is still trading and can have a hugely detrimental effect on the company’s performance as the wrangling goes on.