Restricted voting shares. In 1962, Frank Hughes established Hughes Machine Parts in rural Ontario. In 1975, Frank decided to go public and held an IPO. But, for the IPO Frank decided to issue subordinate voting shares, the B share. The B shares were entitled to one vote each. Frank and his family would hold the A shares which were entitled to 200 votes per share. After a number of secondary issues of shares, there were a total of 32,463,412 common shares outstanding; 265,000 of these were Class A shares .
a. Of the total shares issued, what percent are Class B shares?
b. What percent of the votes do the Class B shares hold?
c. What type of share is the Class A? The Class B
d. Based on the above analysis, what possible danger exists for the Class B shareholders? Is there a protection for these shareholders?