Oppression claims involve a shareholder of a company bringing an action against the corporation in which they own shares when the conduct of the company has an alleged effect that is oppressive, unfairly prejudicial, or unfairly disregards the interests of a shareholder.  Dissent claims arise when a shareholder of a corporation disagrees with a fundamental decision of the corporation in which they own shares.  The shareholder rights that are breached in oppression and dissent claims are set out in the various provincial and Canada business corporation acts.  Remedies for oppression and dissent claims can include the shareholder’s shares being purchased by the corporation at the fair value of the shares, which requires that a valuation of the shares of the corporation be performed.

CHS has been engaged to prepare business valuations for several oppression and dissent cases.  These matters involved CHS obtaining the necessary information to undertake the business valuations and preparing reports describing the factors considered in coming to our fair value conclusions and detailing our valuation calculations.  We also prepared reports commenting on the methodology and assumptions used in an opposing expert’s valuation report.