Expert: Steven Taylor - 11/16/2011

Question
My mother has  213 shares bought in 1955 loranda uranium mines LTD and switch compaines  and the aasets were acquired 1960 by bison petroleum minerals ltd would like know the value of these shares if possible thank you

Answer
David, 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 certificates floating around.

Loranda did a 1 for 3 reverse, then a further 1 for 13 and became Bison. 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.  Based on the 213 shares your mother had originally, that would be far less than 1 share of United Bison, which means your mother should have received about $2.50 cash for her shares in 1987 (I believe the payment was less than 50 cents per pre-consolidation share).

She should have received a check at that time, but if not, there is probably not much to do about it now. You can search the missing property offices in each State or Province she lived from the time she first bought the shares. Many can be searched online for free at www.missingmoney.com and www.naupa.org.