A bespoke service to meet your goals

A bespoke service to meet your goals

Selling a business

When considering selling all or part of a business it is critical to find the right advisor with the experience and know-how to deliver first time – you want to go to market once and deliver a knock-out result.

We recognise that selling a business is a milestone event and you need to be confident that your corporate finance advisor fully understands your business, your objectives and has your best interests at heart. We regularly take on part advisor and part counsellor roles during the course of a deal!

We will advise you on the best strategy to deliver a sale that maximises value and transaction certainty, whilst being discreet and targeted. Sales processes typically involve assessing the following options:

Trade sale
Private Equity sale
Management buy-out
Employee Ownership Trust

Every business is different and every deal is different. We use our knowledge built up over many years’ of delivering transactions to advise you on the optimal exit strategy and help you to implement it. It is important that you align yourself with an advisor who understands every angle and the psychology of a deal. Our continuity and experience will give you the confidence and peace of mind you need.

How it works

01

Objectives & options

We take time to understand your objectives and provide you with options. We provide views on the valuation and saleability of your business. We will design and run bespoke processes to meet your goals.

02

Preparation for sale

We go the extra mile in preparing businesses for sale and diligence. We work closely with you to produce well-structured packs of financial information that are easy to digest, alongside compelling sales documents that clearly articulate the business and its attractiveness to buyers.

03

Identifying buyers

We are tech-enabled and people-orientated. We use our dedicated in-house research team, established networks, and well-invested technology tools to identify credible, strategic buyers.

04

Access buyers

We contact buyers directly on your behalf to excite them about the opportunity. We operate in a highly discreet and professional manner and ensure that parties sign up to confidentiality principles.

05

Offer negotiation

We drive competitive tension, elicit bids and negotiate the terms on your behalf. We know how buyers think and we know where value is won and lost. We work tirelessly and enthusiastically to protect and improve your position.

06

Diligence & project management

We proactively manage the diligence process and co-ordinate all advisors to maintain momentum. We are with you every step of the way, from start to finish.

Selling a business FAQs

How much is my business worth?

Every business has its nuances and can be likened to a living, breathing organism. Valuing “moving” objects requires a combination of technical and commercial experience together with an understanding of what drives value. Typically business values are benchmarked against other similar business transactions and listed comparable companies. We take the time to understand the specifics of your business, your journey and trajectory and cross-reference this to our bank of valuation experience and data points to determine a view on value prior to embarking on a process.
Who will buy my business?

Knowing what drives value and understanding the uniqueness of your business is key to identifying the potential buyer pools for your business. Whether it’s a customer, supplier, competitor, or a business operating in an adjacent market, it is critical to understand what motivates different buyer pools, together with appreciating their likelihood to transact. We have direct relationships with potential purchasers and hundreds of years of combined experience in assessing likely buyers across a range of sectors. We also have well-invested in-house research tools to identify a short list of strategically motivated parties to approach on your behalf, confidentially.
How do I make sure I am getting the best value?

Identifying the right set of potential buyers is key to driving value. Exciting strategically motivated parties about the opportunity will drive competitive tension and increase appetite. We are experts at positioning businesses in the best possible light, including presenting synergy value, underlying earnings and non-financial characteristics to ensure the proposition resonates with the buyer pool from day one.
Understanding the basis of any offers prior to signing exclusivity or Heads of Terms is critical to make sure that you are not leaving yourself open to a buyer price chip in the latter stages of a deal. We use our technical experience to mitigate this.
Ensuring that value is not lost during the course of a process is just as important as driving the day one indicative offer value upwards. We have years of experience and know-how in understanding how buyers behave and know what market normal is when assessing their approach to deal related value items.
How long does a sale process take?

Preparation is key and we often spend time getting to know you and your business well in advance of considering a transaction, sometimes up to several years. Once a process is launched it can typically take from 6-12 months to complete a deal. This can be accelerated if required but it is important to give buyers time to perform their due diligence and not appear like it is a fire sale.

Contact us

Get in touch today to discuss how we can help with your Investment, Corporate Finance or Wealth Management needs.

This firm is regulated by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales for a range of investment business activities. This firm is not authorised under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 but we are able in certain circumstances to offer a limited range of investment services to clients because we are members of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. We can provide these investment services if they are an incidental part of the professional services we have been engaged to provide.