Power of Attorney: share sale
Power of attorney for a selling shareholder to appoint the buyer as the seller’s attorney pending registration of the share transfer.
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When do I use this document?
- as a document to be delivered by a seller at closing of a Share Purchase Agreement
- when stamp duty is payable on the share transfer
- to enable the buyer to vote and exercise other share rights pending the registration of the share transfer
What are the key features?
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- suitable for an individual or corporate seller
- appointment of the buyer as the seller’s attorney
- grant of authority to the buyer to exercise all rights as the legal owner of the sale shares
- irrevocable appointment given by way of security
What else do I need to know?
Following the closing of a share sale transaction, the seller will remain the registered owner of the shares which have been sold until the buyer has paid the necessary stamp duty. This process can take a number of weeks. The transfer of the sale shares cannot be registered in the register of members of the target company until the stamp duty has been paid.
The buyer will want to be able to exercise all the rights as the owner of the sale shares notwithstanding that the seller remains the registered legal owner of the sale shares. To enable the buyer to do this, the buyer will usually require that the seller grants a power of attorney in favour of the buyer which enables the buyer to exercise the legal rights of ownership of the sale shares.
If a share transfer involves consideration exceeding £1,000, stamp duty will be payable to HMRC and HMRC will need to confirm that the stamp duty has been paid. This stamping process typically takes a few weeks and involves payment of the stamp duty and submission of the stock transfer by email to HMRC for HMRC to confirm the payment.
When do I use this document?
- as an advance subscription agreement between the company and a single investor
- where the conversion price will be calculated as a percentage discount to the issue price for shares in the qualified investment round
- if agreed, where there is an agreed valuation cap on the company’s valuation
What are the key features?
- advance subscription terms and payment
- conversion on the occurrence of defined events, including a qualifying financing round, the sale of the company or on a longstop date
- conversion price on a qualified financing round to be at an agreed percentage discount to the qualified financing round share price
- if agreed, a cap on the valuation of the company for the purpose of calculating the conversion price
- warranties regarding the investor’s compliance with Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 regime regarding financial promotions
What else do I need to know?
For detailed discussion regarding the purpose of advance subscription agreements and their benefits and disadvantages for investors and the company, click here.
Negotiating points
Prior to entering into this ASA, the parties will need to consider and agree:
- discount rate: the discounted price per share (expressed as a percentage) at which the ASA investor will receive shares in the qualified financing round
- valuation cap: if agreed, the cap on the valuation of the company for the purpose of calculating the price at which the advance subscription will convert into shares on a qualified investment round
- default valuation: the default valuation of the company which will be used to calculate the conversion price of the advance subscription in circumstances where conversion occurs on the agreed longstop date or the company’s insolvency
- longstop date: the longstop date on which (and in the absence of a prior qualifying financing round) the ASA will automatically convert into shares
- qualified financing round: the minimum amount of funding which the company must raise before that funding round will count as the qualified financing round under the ASA which results in the conversion of the advance subscription into shares
- subscription amount: the amount of the investor’s advance subscription
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Updated by a lawyer on 27/06/2025
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