27 September 2018
What is a fractional share / “shareholder”?
A fractional share is less than one full share. This implies that ownership in a single share is given to more than one person, for example, one share is divided between party A and party B rendering each the holder of 0.3 and 0.7 fractional shares in a profit company, respectively. The Companies Act, 71 of 2008 (as amended) (“the Act“) does not expressly forbid or regulate fractional shares. However, party A and party B cannot qualify as “shareholders” in a company for purposes of the Act. In terms of the Act, a shareholder “means the holder of a share issued by a company”. Such holder of a “share” must hold “one of the units into which the proprietary interest in a profit company is divided”. In other words, for a holder of equity to qualify as a shareholder in terms of the Act, the holder must hold at least one share and not a fractional share. Henochsberg on the Act also notes that a share cannot be divided into fractions.
Voting rights
Shareholders are generally entrusted to vote on any matter to be decided by the company. Such voting rights are defined in the Act as “the rights of any holder of the company’s securities to vote” on the proposed matter. A “share” is included in the definition of “securities”.
However, fractional shares do not enjoy general voting rights in terms of the Act. This means that issued fractional shares risk creating administrative anomalies when having regard to the total votes exercised on a resolution.
Section 37(2) of the Act states that each issued share of a company, has associated with it one general voting right, except to the extent provided otherwise in the Act or the preferences, rights, limitations and other terms determined in terms of the memorandum of incorporation (“MOI“). For our purposes, this section seems to suggest that fractional shares do not enjoy general voting rights given that an “issued share” must be at least one unit. This would result in party A and party B not enjoying general voting rights in matters to be decided by the company. Furthermore, we submit that if 40 holders own 2.5 fractional shares each in a company, they, in terms of section 37(2), are only entitled to vote using the two full shares for their voting rights, resulting in the other 0.5 fractional shares (multiplied by 40), being forfeited. How is the company meant to deal with these anomalies, if not otherwise provided in the MOI?
In addition, section 37(3)(a) of the Act states that every issued share has an irrevocable right of the shareholder to vote on proposals to amend the preferences, rights, limitations and other terms associated with that share. Applying the same logic as above, it would mean that for any proposed changes to the MOI regarding fractional shares, the holders of fractional shares will not be allowed to vote on such changes to their shares, subjecting their rights to the peril of other shareholders (if not otherwise provided for in the MOI).
Rectifying fractional shares issued
The good news is that an existing company which has issued fractional shares may still rectify this position by increasing the number of authorised shares (if needed); cancelling the currently issued fractional shares and issuing such numbers of whole shares to ensure the equivalent shareholding percentages in the company. This can be done by way of capitalisation shares in terms of section 47 of the Act. Alternatively, the company can resolve to make payment considerations instead of issuing fractional shares. This way, parties maintain their whole shares and receive monies instead of their fractional shares entitlement.
It is evident from the above that fractional shares will create a plethora of administrative difficulties for any company, resulting in wasted time and additional legal expenses. These can simply be avoided by issuing whole shares instead of fractional shares. To avoid finding oneself in a situation where fractional shares become an “option”, a company simply needs to authorise enough shares (we normally recommend millions) to enable initial and future issues of whole shares. If your company has existing fractional shares in issue, please don’t hesitate to contact us to help you solve this headache.
