Sale of Businesses

We can help in the negotiations for the sale of a business as well as getting the tax planning done.

Client X was quite a profitable limited company where one of the key directors needed to retire. Various contacts were made with people in the same line of business who were very keen to acquire the business as it had some very useful sales contacts. The original offers would have resulted in the directors, who were also the only shareholders, in getting a very small payback on their investment. Eventually, we negotiated a much better deal with the directors of another company, increasing what each director shareholder put in his pocket by about £60,000. This involved a sale of the assets of the company so that all that was left in the company was cash and, after paying off the companies liabilities, this was distributed to the director shareholders leaving them with a personal tax liability of a maximum of 10%.

Client Y wanted to sell his business and retire but the problem was twofold. Firstly, almost all of the skills needed to keep the business running were in the head of the owner of the company. Secondly, the company was very profitable and because of the skills of the owner, was likely to become very much more profitable. We worked out a way which suited these particular circumstances such that the owner of the business should be able to receive much more money than he anticipated, whilst retaining control of the business and taking a bit of a back seat in the running of the business.