Buying or Selling a Business

If you are contemplating buying another business, then you will have been suitably impressed with the sale particulars. But these do not tell the whole story and when you decide to acquire the assets of a business you will want to satisfy yourself that you can continue trading and can realise any potential growth plans.

While many founders and business owners will implement succession plans to sell or pass their business to a new generation of owners, sometimes it is clear that you have reached the end of the road and the best decision is to call it a day and close the company. Having made this tough decision, you will need to plan the best approach to achieve this cleanly and cost-effectively before the final closure can be made official.

Is your business ripe for more growth? Do you have the team that can take your business to the next level? Or do you want to take a step back and reap some of the rewards of your efforts? If continuity is important to you, then a management buy-out (MBO) or a management buy-in (MBI) might be an appropriate avenue to consider.

As many of the government measures to support businesses through Covid-19 come to an end, businesses which have limped along may need to take more drastic action and consider renegotiation with creditors, restructuring, disposal, or even winding up or administration.

When you come to sell your business there will probably be a difference between the price that you think your business is worth and the amount that a buyer wishes to pay you. A possible middle ground is to negotiate an 'earn out' which is a structure whereby on the sale of a company you receive an initial amount, and then further sums will be paid dependent on the performance of the business following the sale.

After years of hard work building up a business, the prospect of selling it on to another company or the current management team will be the light at the end of the tunnel. Unless you are a serial entrepreneur, a more leisurely life is ahead when the stresses and strains of running a business will be behind you.

A merger occurs when two companies, which are often about the same size, agree to join together to form a new entity. Mergers are friendly, whereas acquisitions tend to be more hostile and occur when a target company realizes that they have no option but to ensure their survival by being bought by the other company.

The opportunity to purchase a competing or complimentary business provides an important route to expansion, but it is important to be clear about what exactly you are acquiring in a business - whether this is via shares or assets.

Adrenalin may be running high if you are on the verge of buying a business or selling the company you have built from scratch. You may have already sought professional advice regarding the company valuation but there are other critical issues on which advice will also be needed during those early heady days of negotiations.

Getting the finance in place to enable a management buyout to proceed can be challenging for the management team. There will be a number of people involved in the decision-making process, all of whom will have differing levels of experience, personal financial security and appetite for risk, and all of whom will be trying to pull a deal together while still doing their day job. In these circumstances, it is essential for the business owner and management team to work…