Expert: Steven Taylor - 1/21/2011

Question
I have a number of stock certificates from Embassy Mines Limited. I also have an annual report from 19 July 1960 with an enclosed special resolution stating the intent to sell all Embassy Mines Limited assets in exchange for stock in Bison Petroleum & Minerals Limited.  Both were incorporated in the Province of Ontario. Bison was incorporated on June 10, 1960 with the intent of merging the interests of 4 companies into the one company called Bison Petroleum & Minerals Company.  The four companies merged were: Embassy Mines Limited, Westore Mines Limited, Viscount Oil & Gas Limited, and Paramount Petroleum & Mineral Corporation Limited.  Bison Petroleum issued one share of stock for every seven shares of Embassy Mines held at the time of sale in 1960.

Where can I go to determine the present value of these shares?

Answer
Mick, Embassy did complete the transaction and became Bison. Bison is one of the most asked about companies, which is not at all surprising due to it having a very large number of shareholders in the 1970's and early 1980's, and the fact that the company subsequently reverse-split most of those shareholders out of existence but left most of the old certificates floating around.

In 1987, the Company changed its name to United Bison and did a 1 for 100 reverse stock split immediately followed by a 100 for 1 forward split. The reason for the two splits was the huge number of company shareholders with under 100 shares. If they had less than 100 shares, the reverse split would result in them having less than 1 new share, and they would receive cash in lieu of the new shares. I believe the payment was less than 50 cents per pre-consolidation share for the shares.

If the number of Embassy shares you have would resulted in more than 100 United Bison shares, then the United Bison would have become Nalcap Holdings on the basis of 1 Nalcap share for every 7.7 United Bison shares. Nalcap then became Arbatax International on the basis of 1.5 Arbatax for every 1 Nalcap share. Arbatax became MFC. In 2005, MFC changed its name to KHD Humboldt Wedag which assumed its NASDAQ listing. KHD later split into two companies - Terra Nova which trades on the NYSE for about $7.25 a share, and KHD which trades in Germany for about 6.80. They also distributed the other businesses and investments of MFC to shareholders as Mass Financial, which is now trading in Vienna for about 6.25 a share.

You will need to contact the transfer agents for the new companies to see if they have you on their books as a shareholder. Terra Nova's is BNY Mellon, but I am not sure of the others. Because of the complexity and international nature of the reorganizations, I suggest you might want to contact a broker to assist you.