We have in-house specialisms allowing us to provide fully integrated advisory services for business owners wishing to exit their business, tailored to your individual circumstances, all delivered and communicated by one team.

If you're looking to sell your business, we offer a no-obligation initial consultation: please get in touch to arrange this at your convenience.

Business exit strategies

Business sales or exits, especially for larger deals with multiple parties involved, can involve complex structures dealing with your proceeds and how long you'll need to be involved with the business, depending typically on whether it is a full or partial sale (i.e., a buyout if you wish to exit, or partial sale if you wish to retain partial ownership or share but release value or reduce risk).

We can provide advice on how to go about achieving whatever business sale goals you have such as:

• Trade sales to a person or business
• Management buyouts
• Sale to an employee ownership trust (EOT)
• Private equity disposal
• Passing on the business

Stages of the deal we can advise on

We can advise on structuring a business sale, coordinate how the sale will proceed, and provide business, legal and tax due diligence throughout the sale. We can provide these services at a range of points in the business sale journey:

• Early stage: you are a business owner looking to sell your business soon and you want advice on preparing for the sale.
• Mid stage: you have a deal lined up to sell your business and need legal and/or tax advice and due diligence.
• Late stage: you are in the process of selling your business but are facing unexpected risks, disputes, or litigation around the deal or structure and need legal and/or tax advice.

Business and legal advice we can provide on completing the deal

• We have specialist lawyers who can advise on the sale agreement, ensuring that it covers disposal of all business assets.
• Once the deal has gone through, it may affect the work-related sectors in which you can work; we can advise on navigating this situation.
• We can provide legal review and due diligence ensuring business documents are in order such as leases, employment contracts, software and equipment contracts, can advise on the legality of selling your trade or client book, and can identify risks such as potential staff disputes or litigation that may impact a sale.
• All or any of these factors might affect the risk that you and the business are taking on related to the sale, and they can be overwhelming and costly if undertaken without appropriate advice. We can advise throughout the process to make sure that you structure the best deal possible from the legal point of view.

Tax advice that we can provide on completing the deal

• During a sale you'll likely be dealing with banking or financial third parties who all want a piece of the deal and may be incentivised to push a deal through that doesn't have your best interests in mind. Our tax advisors can provide unbiased advice to ensure the deal is structured to reflect your interests and wishes, not theirs.
• We can advise on structuring the deal in the most tax efficient way e.g., minimising capital gains tax.
• You may be presented with different compensation or stock options tied to whether you exit immediately or continue working for the business for a period of time; we can advise you on these.
• We can provide accounting due diligence ensuring that your accounts are prepared for a sale; we can go through the books, prepare copies of VAT returns, and identify potential risks that may impact a sale.

Deal completion succession planning

If you wish to pass on the business, or business sale proceeds, to the next generation, we can provide a tailored estate plan to ensure that the wealth passes down to the next generation in a tax efficient way.