Paying Dividends Canada

Question: [ONTARIO, CANADA] BUSINESS EXPERTS and/or LAWYERS: Is there a way to start a company that offers…?

…shares to private investors so that they can earn a percentage or dividend (paid periodically) from the company’s profits?

So investors that “I” choose can buy stocks in my company and make some money when the company makes a profit.
So it would be SIMILAR to a publicly traded stock on a LOCAL and/or PRIVATE stock exchange (if one should exist).
Where potential investors are chosen so that no one can manipulate the price of the stock or the value of the company by making “put” and/or “call” options or selling “derivatives” or anything like that.

Answer: That would be called a closely held corporation and there are lots of them in existence. The problem with that type of company is that minority shareholders have no control and would have a difficult time to sell out if they needed to liquidate. You could draw up some sort of buy sell agreement whereby stockholders could sell there shares back to the corporation or to other members of the group if they wanted out.

Hero of Education (CKWS)