Sellers
Seller Services
Berkeley Cannon specialises in business sales with a valuation from £250,000 to £100,000,000, with our mean consideration payments mainly ranging between £1 Million and £50 Million but we have occasionally worked at substantially higher levels. No deal is "too large or too small". Our executives are here 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 recognize 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 us that you want Berkeley Cannon to sell your business then we can assist you immediately and with in short time frames. There are no costs associated with the Instruction to Market. Although quite often we can operate without an instruction, where we feel appropriate.
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. Again this isn't essential as many of our buyers prefer to receive your business details in a certain one page format.
Step 4: Identifying an Acquirer
We will most likely know your best acquirers from our in-depth relationships. If we didn't we might To create a two to three paragraph summary of your business and circulate this in-descript information around the acquisition community. If we did take this approach we would then 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 descript 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 and agreeing Due Diligence
- This is decision time.
So this is where it becomes more 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 can incur a 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 4-8 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 adviser we will always have your best interests at heart, even if it means walking away from a deal.
Our fee structure is success only and we are rewarded on achieving for you the very best price.
We usually ensure there are multiple acquirers looking at your business so you are not, if at all possible, limited to just one offer. Although where your best suitor is easily identified and we know them well, we have every confidence that without starting a dutch auction we can secure you your best in market price.
Why Berkeley Cannon?
- Strict Confidentiality Policy.
- M&A Nationwide Coverage.
- M&A Intermediary Services.
- Extensive Research Capabilities.
- Deep Buyer Relationships ensuring your deal is crucially prioritised, funded and maximised.
- Free Document Preparation.
- No Up-Front Fees or Retainers, Buyer Pays.
- Our interests are aligned, the more we achieve for you, the more we receive.
- Extensive deal-making History.
- Extensive reference portfolio to call upon wherever necessary.
We invite you to learn more about Berkeley Cannon and find out how we can help.
Get started now.