KWV APPRAISAL RIGHTS CASE
Farmer demands fair share in test case for minority investors’ rights
The case has implications for future deals that significantly change the character of a company
Corporate law history was made on Friday when shareholder activist Albie Cilliers filed SA’s first appraisal rights case in the High Court in Cape Town. The case is distinct from a minority oppression action, such as that by Airports Company SA minority shareholders. Appraisal rights are triggered by a fundamental transaction, which significantly changes the company. Cilliers’s case relates to KWV, now called La Concordia Holdings, but it has implications for all future fundamental corporate transactions that give minority shareholders the right to demand to be bought out by the majority. It will be the first time this section of the Companies Act 2008, designed to protect minority shareholders, is tested in court. La Concordia CEO Andre van der Veen said on Monday that the company opposed the action. It means a high court judge will have to determine the fair value for Cilliers’s shares. Cilliers, a Western Cape farmer, is demanding that La Concordia pays him a fair value for his s...
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