We help people in business to:

Sell or exit a business

In most small or medium sized businesses, there comes a time when shareholders move on.

This can be for many reasons – retirement, moving from one business to another, or changes in a leadership team – but it always requires careful, considered exit planning and execution.

Exit and sale can also be a sensitive point in the life of a business and, combined with the potential for complicated legal consequences, can make for a stressful as well as an exciting and rewarding period for business owners and managers.

Much like buying and selling a home a business transaction includes a strong emotional element. There is much to be gained from using a trusted advisor to help manage, facilitate and adjudicate, with your best interests as their primary driver and provide an objective, rational, expert view on proceedings.

We can help you to:

Shape and position your business in preparation for an efficient sale

Ensure that terms, contracts and shareholders’ agreements are clear and agreed

Understand and negotiate key sale documents and provisions dealing with the apportionment of risk including confidentiality, exclusivity, warranties, disclosure letters, seller limitations, restrictive covenants, payment terms and security

Negotiate your own or others’ exit from your business

Set terms for retirement, redundancy and any end-of-employment payments

Agree ongoing shareholding arrangements

Our client stories

We were acting for Peter, who was retiring from the business he had set up 30 years before. One of Peter’s employees, who already held some shares, was purchasing the business; an exciting and emotional time for both of them. Funding was tight, so Peter’s accountants had helped structure the transaction and the initial heads of terms. Peter’s shares were to be partly purchased by the Company and partly by the employee. A significant proportion of the purchase monies were to be paid over a two year period.

The company law issues were complex but, by working closely with Peter’s accountants, we were able to negotiate an agreement that:
– fitted both sides’ needs both commercially and from a tax perspective; and
– provided additional protection for the money that Peter was not being paid on completion of the sale.

Get in touch

Whether you’re working out whether you need legal advice, want to speak to a different solicitor about an ongoing issue, or need to refer your own clients for specialist advice, we’d be pleased to help.

We offer an initial free consultation to talk through how we can help you and your business.

Lawbright.

Please call us on 01794 336552
or email us at

paul@lawbright.co.uk

caroline@lawbright.co.uk