I have looked into the process of having my shares Registered vs. being a Beneficial Owner giving me the right (if I so choose) to exercise Dissenting or Appraisal rights. I have been told that my holdings within registered accounts (RRSP etc.) cannot be registered to my name without de-registering the account. Say that three times fast. De-registering would trigger taxation on any holdings within that account (most of my holdings) so it appears my options are limited.
I can vote against the sale by instructing my institution to do so but cannot exercise appraisal rights. Please feel free to add your input if I have been given incorrect information from my institution.
I am leaning towards voting NO out of principal but I see little else I can do.
From reading up on Dissenting and Appraisal rights I came upon a few case studies of Deer Energy. Here is one write-up from Torys LLP that discusses the increase in use in US cases but the lack of success in Canada. In the case of Deer Energy (Alberta courts), after 2 years of litigation the court decided that the market was the best at determining fair value and as such did not award an increase in share price to the dissenting shareholders.
http://www.torys.com/insights/publications/2014/12/gambling-on-mergers-appraisal-litigation-as-deal-arbitrage
This is new territory for me so please correct me if I am wrong on anything above. Would be nice to have more options at my disposal.
