Seller Services |
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Sellers Services
Berkeley Cannon specialises in business sales with a
valuation from £250,000 to £30,000,000, but has occasionally
worked at a substantially higher level. Our executives
are there to help you identify the unique selling points
in your business and present them in a way to justify
the sale price you achieve.
There are a number of stages to the sale process and
it is important you recognise and understand what is
involved.
Step 1: Review
Exploring the value in your business is the first step
in deciding whether a sale is something you are looking
to pursue. Our executives are available to speak with
you at length on the telephone and more than happy to
spend time visiting your offices to develop an understanding
of your company and what it might be worth to a prospective
acquirer.
Step 2: Instruction
If you decide after speaking with one of our executives
that you want Berkeley Cannon to sell your business
then you will need to instruct us to act on your behalf.
This involves signing an ‘Instruction to Market’. There
are costs associated with the Instruction to Market
but ONLY after you sign ‘Heads of Terms’. Heads of Terms
is the final stage before lawyers are instructed, so
by the time ‘Heads’ are produced you will have met a
number of acquirers and settled on the offer made in
principle by one party over the others.
Step 3: Memorandum Production
An Information Memorandum (IM) is a biography of your
business and presents to any potential acquirer all
of the information they need in order to decide whether
they want to meet with you, and are prepared to offer
a purchase price in the region of our estimated value.
An IM is usually 12-20 pages long and forms the core
of our marketing material for your business.
Step 4: Identifying an Acquirer
To identify interested parties we create a two to three
paragraph summary of your business and circulate that
information around the acquisition community. We follow
it up with phone calls and any interested acquirers
will be required to complete a Non Disclosure Agreement
before we send them a full IM. Once they have read the
IM we will take their availability to meet with you
and liaise with you to organise a meeting. Acquirers
present a multitude of offerings from share swaps, to
earn out agreements, to full sales on completion date.
They all come with different caveats attached and use
different multiples to value practices.
Step 5: Signing Heads of Terms
This is where it becomes very serious. You will have
provided some pre offer information for an acquirer
to present an offer based on the value they perceive
in the business, and they have instructed their lawyers
to present an offer. Heads of Terms provides a framework
that will be used for all the subsequent sale documents
here on in. We normally advise you to take up to a week
out to make sure you are happy to proceed with the sale
because pulling out after Heads of Terms have been signed
will incur cost. It is important to understand the earn
out agreement and be confident the purchasers expectations
are achievable.
Step 6: Due Diligence
This will usually take 6-8 weeks and includes the time
taken to draw up the share sale (or asset sale) agreements
and the disclosure letter. The purchaser will review
all the information and confirm that the information
we provided in our IM is accurate. A completion date
is agreed and worked towards. On completion date the
seller will transfer funds to your solicitor and they
will take from that their costs, pay our fee and any
additional costs incurred in the sale such as tax planning.
Berkeley Cannon will be there to help you throughout
the sale process. We are one phone call away and as
your professional advisers will always have your best
interest at heart, even if it means walking away from
a deal.
Our fee structure is commission based so we are rewarded
on achieving for you the very best price.
We ensure there are multiple acquirers looking at your
business so you are not, if at all possible, limited
to just one offer.
Why Berkeley Cannon?
• Strict Confidentiality Policy
• M&A Professionals, Nationwide
• M&A Intermediary Services
• Extensive Research Capabilities
• Over 1,000 Registered Buyers
• Free Document Preparation
• No Up-Front Fees or Retainers
• No Closing, No Fee
We invite you to learn more about Berkeley Cannon and
find out how we can help.
Contact us today to arrange a confidential meeting.
info@berkeleycannon.com
