Selling shares in small business?

Question

I have an incorporated small business in Ontario. It's a 50 / 50 split. We only issued 2 shares when registering the business. Now I want to buy out my partner 80 / 20, but we only have 2 physical shares.. how do we add more shares? can we own fractions of 2 shares? How can we do this without going to a lawyer? Do we just need to ammend our articles and leave it at that?

Answer 1

Are the shares for a nominal value (i.e. 1 Dollar each)? In this case, just increase your capital for an amount equal to the nr of shares you need , adding new shares . I.e. increase to five shares with equal value, 4 belonging to you 1 to your partner, and it is an 80/20

You need to have a meeting of the board where you decide to increase the capital and, if necessary, to modify the Articles of Assocation.

You need to deliberate the share transfer too(or to appoint the new shares to one partner; then you need to register everything. You don't need probably a Lawyer: an accountant can do it in few minutes, if there aren't special problems in your company's articles of association