Business Disposals: How do I dispose a business?

Introduction

As the discussion to sell your business will be one of the most significant steps you will take in your life, it is important to ensure that the process you follow is carefully planned. Shaw Gibbs Corporate Finance has extensive experience in supporting owner managed businesses from the start to the end of their sale process. Our experienced team seek to understand the key drivers that create value in your business and then match these to potential acquirers through extensive research on a national and international basis.

During the sale process we will support you with the following:

Pre-sale project plan

A review is conducted to examine the critical factors required for a successful sale and devise a project plan. This review will cover the following areas:

• Preparation for sale - Ensuring the key elements are in place that will increase the value for your business
• Research the market - Thorough investigation of the market and its participants to discover which organisations stand to gain most from purchasing your business
• Contact strategy - How the potential acquirers will be contacted
• Negotiation points - Manage the negotiation on your behalf
• Due diligence - Manage the financial, legal and commerical due dligence processes on your behalf

Identification of Potential Purchasers

We have extensive resources both nationally and internationally to identify and make contact with potential purchasers of your business. We use our research combined with shareholder knowledge to compile a list of potential purchasers which will be approved prior to making any contact with the parties. We also use a range of other methods to confidentially market the business including select databases which corporate finance professionals track for opportunities.

Once a list of potential purchasers has been agreed we make contact with these organisations. Keeping the sale of your business confidential is of paramount importance and no information that will allow your businesses identity to be guessed will be supplied until we have a confidentiality agreement in place.

Route to sale

We will consider and advise on the best way to sell the business. Many choices are available to you and different types of acquirer can be approached during the sale to create more opportunities than would be achieved from approaching one group of buyers. Options for sale include:

• Trade sale to a business in the industry
• Trade sale to a business outside the industry
• Private Equity investment
• Management Buy-out
• Management Buy-in

We review all options available to you and the relative pro’s and con’s of each to determine an appropriate sale strategy for your business.

Transaction Support

Once you have selected a preferred party to work with, we will support you through the due diligence phase of the transaction, including;

• Negotiating and drafting the ‘Heads of Agreement’. This outlines the details of the deal and provides the backbone for the ‘Sale and Purchase Agreement’
• Coordinating the work of other advisers, including the lawyers to ensure the deal is completed in a timely manner
• Managing the due diligence requirements of the purchaser, including setting up and managing a data room
• Advising and negotiating on the commercial considerations of the legal agreements including warranties, tax covenants and any restrictive covenants.

Tax Advice

In addition to our corporate finance services we are able to provide tax advice throughout the process including advising on the potential tax liabilities of the alternative offers.

Different types of offer may have different implications in terms of the way your business sale proceeds are taxed. Understanding the taxation effects and ensuring all available reliefs can be claimed is vital in appraising which offer and transaction structure will ultimately result in the best deal for you.

At Shaw Gibbs, we have both Personal Tax and Corporate Tax departments allowing us to offer specialist advice to both the company and its owners.

---

About us

Shaw Gibbs Corporate Finance advises business owners seeking assistance with mergers, acquisitions, growth & exit strategies.

We have significant deal experience, working with clients from an early stage – advising on business valuation, deal negotiation, fundraising and tax planning to make your transaction run smoothly.

With an enviable reputation as one of the leading deal specialists in Oxford and London, Shaw Gibbs can achieve successful outcomes for our clients, however complex the transaction may be.

From our London and Oxford offices we work both locally and nationwide across numerous business sectors as diverse as food service, engineering, transport & medical devices.

We are a blend of Corporate Finance Accountants, Tax Specialists and former Finance Directors, who can also call on specialist resources from other areas of our business where necessary, such as Financial Services, Payroll, Human Resources and Company Secretarial.