SELLING YOUR BUSINESS

How I can help you to sell your business?

You have worked for years to build a successful business and now the time has come where you want to realise the value in your business. This is typically by way of any of the following:

  • a sale of your business
  • a flotation of your business
  • a sale of part of your business to a private equity investor

It is hugely important that you have your business in good legal shape before you even start thinking about any of the above. All of the above processes will involve a third party carrying out what is called “due diligence” on your business and if it is not in good legal shape, this may affect the valuation or even scupper the deal. Due diligence will look at every aspect of your business, such as:

  • whether you have watertight service agreement with big suppliers
  • whether you own all of the intellectual property rights that you think you own
  • whether your employees have sensible terms in their employment contracts
  • whether the business faces any potential liabilities
  • whether you are legally able to sell customer lists
  • the terms of your property ownership or rental and any associated liabilities
  • whether you have complied with all applicable laws in running your business

So if don’t have all the contracts and protections in place, you would be wise to contact a lawyer a long time before you even consider approaching third parties about an exit.

Whilst I was at DLA Piper, the world’s largest law firm, I worked in the private equity team, where day in day out I dealt with complex, high value business sales and private equity investments. You can therefore be confident that I have the experience, knowledge and skills to procure the best position for you on such a transaction.

These types of transactions are in the main complex and time consuming, with negotiations lasting anything from between 1 month and 12 months. The legal fees are likely to be expensive but I would be willing to consider a percentage of the sale price as a fixed fee in order to provide you with some certainty as to your legal costs.

If you wish to discuss this further, please contact me by clicking here and completing the form and we can arrange a time to talk that is convenient for you.