Now or never.I read the circular a bit more.
We have until July 17th by 5:00 PM to submit our letters to Torstar stating our position as dissenters who want a fair valuation of the shares. These letters could be faxed in (???), or hand-delivered, or couriered. E-mailed???
The numbers thrown around by Torstar are based on Fairness Opinions. If you read the circular, both Firms say that they are offering opinions as opposed to valuations.
I do not want to take this dissent step alone. As far as I can tell, it is not that big a deal. The dissent process is there to protect minority shareholders in the precise sort of situation we have now.
As far as I can tell, there are really no financial costs associated with going through the steps required to legally dissent. The only costs might be if the courts finds that the shares are worth
less than the amount offered.
If there are other legal costs that I have not been able to predict, then that situation would be greatly mitigated by us being together. In any event, the law says that all dissenters would treated as one class.
Keep in mind that the court stage is the last resort of the dissent process. That stage can be avoided because the corp has a chance to offer the dissenters a better shareprice (which price should exceed the highest bid price), and dissenters are free to accept that price.
Again, I have to say that the dissent process is not automatically a long and expensive process. As far as I can tell, there are no costs for us for nearly all of the process. If you read the steps in the dissent process you can see for yourself that one just has to submit documents by various times. There is no need for a lawyer or any payment of fees if the matter is settled between Torstar and the dissenters. Lawyers seem to get involved only if, at the very end of the process, both sides pretty much ask the courts to come up with a fair valuation. I would guess that if we come out on top, our costs would be covered by the others side.
Again, this is definitely more of a team project.
What do we think?