If you and your fellow shareholders are never going to argue, if
you'll always agree on how your shares should be valued, if you
have a common view about how to fund your business and a shared
view about how a shareholder should act in relation to the business
when they cease to be a shareholder, then you most probably
don't need a shareholder agreement.
For those of us who are mortal, however, putting a shareholder
agreement in place in the good times, when each shareholder is in
agreement, is a prudent approach to managing the shareholder
relationship.
All too often I am approached by a shareholder who is in dispute
with fellow shareholders (often family members) and who seeks to
rely on a verbal agreement or even on the company's
constitution. It is true that the constitution of a company has the
effect of a contract between a shareholder and each other
shareholder (s140 Corporations Act) but most company constitutions
are inadequate in providing a mechanism for
