Selling Your Business
Selling your business may be the most important financial decision you ever make. If you are planning the sale of your business, we have prepared the following responses to a number of frequently asked questions by our clients:
When should you sell?
If you want to maximise the value of your business, you should consider the optimum timing of a sale. We can advise you on both when to sell the business and how to improve the attractiveness of your business to potential purchasers.
How much is your business worth?
As we are experienced in valuing businesses, we can provide you with an indicative valuation range for your business. However the only real measure of the value of your business is what someone will actually pay for it.
Who could buy your business?
We can carry out research to develop a list of potential buyers for your business. These could be competitors, trade buyers, customers, suppliers or even your business’s management team. In all cases, you can have full control over who will be approached.
What is the sale process?
The approach that generally achieves the best price is a controlled competitive auction. We can lead the transaction for you and manage the deal from beginning to end. To market your business, we work closely with you to prepare a sales memorandum of the highest quality, which provides an in-depth commentary on your business.
Having agreed a carefully chosen list of buyers with you to approach on your behalf, we can make the initial contact, obtain confidentiality agreements, send out the sales memorandum and invite them to submit an offer for your business. We can also assist you with presentations to interested parties.
Once offers have been received, we can advise you on the merits of each. We can assist you with preparing a data room for the purchaser’s financial due diligence, advise you on the optimum deal structure taking account of your taxation position and advise you on the draft sale and purchase agreement, warranties and disclosure letter.
What are the risks?
The decision to sell your business brings a number of risks, which we believe you should be made fully aware of. For example, these could be a breach of confidentiality, a distraction of management time or even the sale being aborted unexpectedly. We can advise you on the potential risks applicable to your transaction and how to minimise these risks.
How long does it take?
If everything runs smoothly, it should take on average of six months to sell your business, from the initial contact with buyers to the sale completion. We shall, of course, aim to sell your business as quickly as possible, although should a problem arise, the expected time
frames can be delayed.
What are our fees?
Our fees, for the majority of the work we undertake, are usually success based so that our interests are aligned with yours. However, certain parts of our work are charged independently of the sale completion and we will discuss these with you beforehand.
To find out how we can be of service to you, please contact your nearest office or complete the enquiry form below.
| London t: 44 (0)20 7387 5868 |
Solent t: 44 (0)1489 566 700 |
| Portsmouth t: 44 (0)23 9275 4820 |
Thames Valley t: 44 (0)1753 759 000 |
