Just wondering if anyone could point me in the right direction to go for advice in relation to my current situation?
Along with others colleagues from a previous job, I set up a Ltd company with two of the party as Directors and the remainder as non-Director shareholders. We all have pretty much the same amount of shares, with no one person having a majority. We invested an equal amount of money each and received some grant assistance to go towards start-up capital. Nobody has drawn a salary as yet. Things have progressed at a slower pace than we initially anticipated but I am however confident that this is a viable business that we can do well from once established.
Last week the majority of the party have decided that they no longer want to proceed with the business and want to leave to find alternative employment. A minority of us want to continue with the business. As we have been working with no salary since we started, we are not in a position to buy the others out and have invested a good portion of our start-up money in to equipment with the remainder set aside for rent and overheads for the rest of 2012.
My question is can the shareholders who wish to leave force the company to buy back their shares (i.e. return their capital) or can they force us to close the company?
Many thanks for any pointers!
Along with others colleagues from a previous job, I set up a Ltd company with two of the party as Directors and the remainder as non-Director shareholders. We all have pretty much the same amount of shares, with no one person having a majority. We invested an equal amount of money each and received some grant assistance to go towards start-up capital. Nobody has drawn a salary as yet. Things have progressed at a slower pace than we initially anticipated but I am however confident that this is a viable business that we can do well from once established.
Last week the majority of the party have decided that they no longer want to proceed with the business and want to leave to find alternative employment. A minority of us want to continue with the business. As we have been working with no salary since we started, we are not in a position to buy the others out and have invested a good portion of our start-up money in to equipment with the remainder set aside for rent and overheads for the rest of 2012.
My question is can the shareholders who wish to leave force the company to buy back their shares (i.e. return their capital) or can they force us to close the company?
Many thanks for any pointers!