Expert: Steven Taylor - 9/30/2011

Question
QUESTION: I have been going through my deceased Uncle's paper's and came across 3 share certificates:  2 certificates from PetroLantic Ltd. and 1 from Cirque Energy Corp.

I have been searching and all I have found is that they have been de-listed.  I can't find any contact information on these shares.

I was wondering what happened to these companies and if the share certificates are still worth anything?

ANSWER: Tamara, from the information I have available:

Petrolantic and Cirque Energy are one and the same. PetroLantic did a reverse split and changed its name to Cirque, so your Uncle probably just received the new Cirque certificate in the mail and did not have to exchange the old ones.

Cirque went through numerous acquisitions. The company was acquired or merged 4 times. The first 3 exchange ratios were 1 for 3.6, then 0.4 for 1, then 0.354 for 1. In the 4th merger, shareholders received shares of Point North Energy, 40 cents cash, and 0.20 of a share of Tenergy. Point North later went bankrupt and shareholders received nothing, However, in 2006, Tenergy was acquired for $6.30 cash per share.

Because there were various distributions of cash involved along the way, your Uncle may or may not have received the checks due him. If not, the cash would have been turned over to the government for safekeeping in case he or his heirs later claimed it. Therefore, I suggest you check every missing property office in each State or Province in which your Uncle lived from the time he first acquired the shares until the buyout in 2006. You can search many of them online for free at www.missingmoney.com and www.naupa.org. Search using your Uncle's name exactly as it appears on the certificate, even if it is misspelled or abbreviated.

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QUESTION: I have checked with both of these websites and they don't include Ontario where we live and where the share certificate's were purchased and issued. Would you happen to know/have an Ontario website that I could search for these certificate's?

Answer
Unfortunately, Ontario is not a participant in any of the online search websites. Ontario is far behind other States and Provinces in making this information available to the people who need it most.

I suggest you contact Ontario directly. I do not recall which Ministry is currently responsible for cataloging missing property, but they should be able to put you in contact with the right people.

http://www.ontario.ca/