Professional Documents
Culture Documents
PROFESSIONAL
INSIGHTS
TRADE SECRETS OF
BUSINESS DISPOSALS
Barrie Pearson
IFC
THOROGOOD
PROFESSIONAL
INSIGHTS
TRADE SECRETS OF
BUSINESS DISPOSALS
Barrie Pearson
Published in 2005
Charles DesForges
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circulated without the publisher’s
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a similar condition including this
Tax Aspects of Buying and Selling
condition being imposed upon
Companies the subsequent purchaser.
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occasioned to any person acting
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result of any material in this
Dennis Hunt publication can be accepted by
the author or publisher.
In 1976, he founded Livingston Guarantee plc, the first corporate finance boutique
in the UK, advising on acquisitions, disposals, management buy-outs and buy-
ins, fund raising and stockmarket listings. When he sold it, the company had
become the largest and most successful independent corporate finance house
in the UK.
After university, Barrie worked for Dexion Comino International, The Plessey
Company and The De La Rue Company, acquiring and managing companies
in the UK, mainland Europe and the USA.
He has written twelve books, including The Shorter MBA and the Book of Me,
a life coaching manual (both co-written with Neil Thomas). He has presented
seminars on corporate finance in the UK, Europe, New Zealand and the Far East.
He can be contacted by email on realization@eidosnet.co.uk or by telephone on
01296 613828.
This book distils over 30 years of my deal making, both as a principal and a corpo-
rate finance adviser, to reveal the trade secrets people are unaware of because
these are simply neither talked nor written about.
Group executives and business owners thinking of selling will gain invaluable
insights to help them achieve the best possible deal and to ensure that their profes-
sional advisers really are on their side. Similarly, ways are outlined to handle
private equity houses effectively, because many vendors feel they have come
off second-best with the benefit of hindsight.
Professional advisors will discover how to win and handle assignments more
effectively. Professional firms need to review their letters of engagement and
many should make changes to make them less onerous to their clients and more
user-friendly. A client recently obtained no less than 19 changes to a corporate
finance letter of engagement, and rightly so. The initial response from the adviser
was “just sign, trust us, and if there is a problem we will reach an agreement”!
The adviser came close to losing the assignment.
This whole book is laced with proven tactical advice, because tactics determine
whether there will be a deal or not. The reality is that tactical mistakes lose deals
which should have been won; an unforgivable failure.
The successful dealmaker has the ability to view the transaction from the stand-
point of the other side, so executives and professional advisers involved in
acquiring companies have much to gain from this book.
Life after exit is of the essence for private company vendors, yet many give it
little thought and often too late in the day. Equally, it is a subject which doesn’t
seem to be written about but this book provides relevant and down to earth
advice.
Once again, Claire Sargent has made time to word-process the manuscript whilst
doing a demanding full-time job.
Barrie Pearson
REALIZATION
Campbell House
Weston Turville
Bucks HP22 5RQ
5 COMMERCIAL FEATURES
NEED GROOMING 25
Take positive action to retain key staff ....................................................26
Assess land or property with hidden value ............................................27
Diversification and overseas expansion may
reduce shareholder value..........................................................................28
Publication Relations (PR) may be a double edged sword....................28
Separate out and retain a peripheral business.......................................29
Challenge the need for vendor due diligence.........................................29
Chapter 1
A failed attempt to sell will damage
the business
Current year performance is likely to suffer ......................................2
A failed attempt seldom happens, and even then only to other people, you may
well think. But you would be wrong!
Corporate finance advisers are usually appointed to sell a business, because they
are the ‘experts’. As a corporate financier for many years, I systematically collected
anecdotal evidence of the success rate of our competitors. Typically, they only
achieve a sale about one in three times.
I had a golden rule that unless I truly believed we would achieve a sale, which
meant negotiating a price that the vendors would want to accept, we should
decline to be appointed. In addition to damaging their business, our reputation
would suffer and we would be busy fools because corporate finance fees are
hugely dependent on completing a sale.
I am not suggesting that you don’t use a corporate finance adviser, because a
do-it-yourself approach is likely to be even less successful, but it is essential that
you recognize the damage a failed attempt to sell will cause and then take a reality
check on your prospects for achieving a sale, as outlined in Chapter 2, in order
to maximize your chances of success.
• collating the extensive information required for the due diligence work
to be carried out on behalf of the purchaser;
• taking specialist tax advice to minimize your capital gains tax liabilities;
Transactions take unexpected twists and turns which consume more of your
time. The purchaser may pull out unexpectedly or attempt to chisel on price at
the eleventh hour, making it necessary to re-open negotiations with an alter-
native purchaser.
The whole process is likely to take six months or more and it is unquestionably
a serious distraction. The net result is that current year profits may fall short of
expectation, and this could well have a significant impact on deal value.
I believe you should deny the rumor, if necessary dismissing it as merely another
instance of speculation which has happened from time to time and has always
proved to be inaccurate. Ideally, you would tell the staff at the outset and keep
them informed, but we do not live in an ideal world. People would understandably
become unsettled, it would prompt some people to look for another job or to
accept an offer which otherwise they would have turned down.
In order to minimize the risk of an internal leak, avoid any visits by prospective
purchasers, or even frequent phone calls from an adviser, which could cause
speculation. It makes sense to have contact made only by mobile phones and a
secure email address. It may be necessary to involve your secretary or your finan-
cial director, but make it clear that any leak would be attributable to them because
they are the only staff to be aware of the situation.
Some owners unthinkingly risk demotivating key directors who are not share-
holders. In a specific case, the owner told his four executive directors that he
was to initiate a sale and on completion he would give each person £100,000
from the sale to reward their commitment for more than 10 years of loyal service.
48 hours before legal completion the purchaser pulled out because they had been
forced to give a profit warning and announced significant job losses. Conse-
quently, they felt that an acquisition would not be well received. The owner was
devastated because he was to leave the business after a brief handover period,
but he never imagined how his directors would respond.
The £100,000 was a substantial capital windfall for each of the other directors
and mentally they and their partners had already decided how to use the cash.
Disappointment turned to bitterness and within a few months three directors
left, despite being totally committed to the business beforehand.
Lawyers may agree to reduce their invoice by, say, 25% if the deal is aborted,
but the amount payable will depend upon the point at which the sale collapses.
Fortunately, their work only commences in earnest when heads of agreement
have been signed. Specialist tax advice is likely to cost more than £10,000 and
will be payable in full. So, in total, a failed attempt to sell is likely to cost more
than £30,000, and up to £100,000 if the deal aborts close to anticipated legal
completion.
The failed attempt to sell, quickly followed by the inevitable stress of an MBO,
possibly one that becomes acrimonious, is a daunting prospect and the psycho-
logical advantage will be with the management team. Worse still, when a buy-out
attempt fails the rapport with your management team may have been damaged
irreparably and they may leave to pursue a buy-in opportunity elsewhere.
Chapter 2
Realize a reality check is vital
How strong are buyer appetites in your sector? ...............................8
Also they should be keen to meet you, say, two years before you intend to sell
because they will have the opportunity to keep in touch with you in the meantime.
You should arrange the meetings about three weeks in advance, so that the
advisers can prepare adequately, and tell them that the agenda should include:
A review of relevant acquisitions made in the sector will reveal which compa-
nies have been buying, the size of deals done and any particular type of business
which seems to be attractive. Equally important, the corporate finance adviser’s
knowledge of the sector should provide a valuable insight into likely buyers and
non-buyers. Also, the adviser’s view of both the attractive and unattractive features
of your business should provide an indication of some of the pre-sale grooming
which needs to be done before initiating a sale. Chapter 4 is devoted to grooming
your business in order to maximize saleability and value.
The adjusted pre-tax profit is a key figure for any vendor because it is the profit
the new owners would benefit from at the outset. In the case of a subsidiary
company, there may be allocated management charges to be added back. For
a private company, there could be significant add-backs such as:
Quite often these owner add-backs may legitimately increase the profit by 50%
or more, and in some cases at least double the profits.
Corporate finance advisers will be able to estimate the multiple of adjusted pre-
tax profits which is likely to apply to your business, but the multiple chosen is
subjective and truly a matter of opinion.
It must be recognized, however, that the actual amount paid at legal comple-
tion may be significantly less than the overall deal value for a private company.
The acquirer may insist that some of the purchase consideration will not only
be deferred but entirely contingent on the profit performance achieved in either
one or two years post acquisition. If the vendors reject this type of deal, it is
quite possible that a sale is effectively ruled out.
Significant profit growth was expected throughout the medium-term, and the
founder was shocked and wrong-footed by the reaction of the executive direc-
tors. They did not wish to see the business sold for at least three years in order
to maximize the value of their share options and did not want to pursue a manage-
ment buy-out as an alternative way for the owner to achieve an early sale. They
hinted that they could, and might well, undermine an early sale, which was used
successfully as a bargaining tool to gain them more share options for their support.
Private equity investors, still often referred to as venture capitalists, may have
a big say in any sale. They may set a minimum acceptable deal value which effec-
tively rules out a sale for the time being. If an earn-out deal structure is anticipated,
a private equity investor may demand that they should receive full value at legal
completion because the acquirer will only wish to incentivize continuing
owner-directors. Some hard bargaining with the private equity investor may
be needed, and it should be addressed in principle at an early stage of the sale
process.
On the other hand, a private equity investor may be keen to sell earlier than the
owner-directors, either because their investment fund is due to be closed quite
soon and monies have to be returned to the fund investors, or because they wish
to accept an unsolicited offer even though the management team may be keen
to continue.
Chapter 3
What buyers really want…
and want to avoid
Management continuity is often the big issue .................................13
Staff retention may have been high because of loyalty to the owner directors,
and some will decide to move on or respond to an approach from a headhunter.
Business founders and owner directors often bring more passion and have more
impact than an employed executive will. Consequently, the wish for one or more
of the owners to leave after a brief handover period will cause concern to an
acquirer. The response may be to insist that the key people are effectively ‘locked
in’ for a couple of years with an earn-out deal.
If you really want to leave quickly after the sale has completed, it is important
to demonstrate that you have been working only part-time and largely in a non-
executive role for some time before initiating a sale. Simply appointing an
‘employee’ director as managing director shortly prior to sale is unlikely to
convince an acquirer, especially if you continue to be fully involved in the business
and play a demonstrably key role such as winning new clients.
to retain a significant equity stake, perhaps to help the financing of the buy-out,
your role is likely to be limited to a non-executive director.
If the business is to be absorbed into an existing subsidiary, the owners will quickly
become surplus to requirements and other redundancies may be inevitable.
Then the unthinkable happened. The customer merged with another major
company and soon afterwards concerted supplier rationalization was
commenced. Shortly after initiating the sale of the business, the customer informed
them that they were too small to be considered as a future supplier and purchasing
would be phased out within 12 months. Company profitability and any hope of
selling the business were wrecked, not because of unsatisfactory performance,
far from it, but substantial job losses inevitably had to follow.
Some successful private businesses are built on selling branded products, sourced
from a single ultra low cost supplier in a far away country such as India, parts
If consistent sales and profit growth have not been achieved, then a strong
performance compared with the sector is important. For example, travel related
companies were hit hard by the aftermath of 9/11. A company which success-
fully pursued other sales opportunities and quickly trimmed backed costs would
be viewed favorably, even if there were a profit setback.
• a redundancy program.
Some vendors are tempted to include as one-off events situations which should
be more accurately described as management mistakes, but these will be
dismissed as a try on by a purchaser and may undermine other legitimate claims.
One vendor added back the headhunter’s fee, relocation package, the salary up
to dismissal and the termination payment to a managing director who was
dismissed after only six months. This was a costly management mistake, which
was rejected as an eligible add back.
have delayed placing some orders which will lead to over performance against
budget for the next financial year, will not readily convince a purchaser.
Vendors must recognize that purchasers expect a picture of rising sales and profits,
preferably at a rate of 10% a year or more. Any picture of flat sales or profits
is unattractive enough to deter many prospective purchasers.
An anticipated loss in the current financial year will rule out most prospective
purchasers, because many companies have a policy not to acquire a loss-making
business unless it is to be absorbed in an existing subsidiary. Also, rightly or
wrongly, purchasers are likely to interpret the sale as a hurried attempt to exit
because the vendors are not confident of their ability to restore profits.
An actual loss in the previous financial year will unsettle purchasers, even if the
current year performance to date and the full year forecast show a strong profit
turnaround. The concerns will be that the loss was exaggerated in order to benefit
current year profit and the business may perform erratically again in the future.
When sales or profit are forecast to grow at, say, 15% a year or more, prospec-
tive purchasers may regard it as unfounded optimism. So the vendors need to
outline the business development projects already in progress which will underpin
the forecast.
There could be a much greater problem for the vendors, however, if tax evasion
has taken place. I heard about one case involving a manufacturing company
where the owner and three employed directors decided to pay all overtime in
cash, net of tax, to avoid income tax because “the company was in financial crisis”.
The situation was compounded because the vendor did not disclose the
problem to the acquirer, even though a seven-figure payment would have to be
made as a result of what had started out as a routine Inland Revenue PAYE inves-
tigation. It was only discovered by the acquirer during due diligence and they
immediately withdrew from the transaction for obvious reasons.
Another problem for vendors may arise out of benefits in kind not disclosed to
the Inland Revenue. It could involve a boat or an overseas home, bought and
maintained by the company, which is used almost exclusively for the benefit of
the company owners. The acquirer may insist that a full disclosure is made to
the Inland Revenue at legal completion, with adequate cash held in an escrow
account to cover the anticipated liability, because they will not be party to a failure
to disclose a known tax liability, even though the payment of running costs ceased
immediately on acquisition.
The only conceivable advice I can give to any business owner is to handle all
tax affairs impeccably from the outset.
Chapter 4
Recognize financial grooming is
essential to maximize saleability
and value
Annual budgets and monthly management
accounts are a must.............................................................................20
It is not enough simply to recognize what buyers really want, and want to avoid,
as outlined in chapter 3. Systematic action to groom the business should be taken
before initiating a sale. This may require from three months to up to two years
depending upon the state of the company.
Budgeting and monthly managements accounts are essential for effective manage-
ment. Suitable software packages are readily available. Alternatively, the
auditors should be asked to prepare an annual budget and monthly manage-
ment accounts for a fixed fee, but the work should really be done in-house.
A much better guide to progress than relying only on monthly accounts for the
year to date, is to produce an up-dated year end forecast each quarter by adding
together the actual results in the year to date and the latest forecast for the
remainder of the year. This guards against false optimism when although the
year to date is in line with budget, the remainder of the year is expected to result
in a shortfall.
Clearly, any adjustments made to enhance the profit profile must not be overdone.
The impact is tangible and substantial. If the purchaser values the business at,
say, seven times pre-tax profit, then every £100,000 of annual cost reduction will
increase the deal value by £700,000! So the golden rule is to implement cost reduc-
tion in sufficient time to create a full-year benefit in the financial year prior to
selling the business.
For many companies, staff costs are the major overhead expense. Surplus staff
should be made redundant. Under-performing staff should be helped to reach
the required standard, but then removed if necessary. Best human resources
practice should be followed throughout, with staff being treated generously and
helped to obtain new employment where appropriate. If you don’t take action,
the likelihood is that the acquirer will do so and probably treat staff less gener-
ously, whilst you will have suffered a lower purchase price.
Whenever someone leaves, make every effort to avoid the need for replacement
or reorganize so that a less experienced and lower cost person will suffice.
Generous provisions against profit are widely used, relating to stock and work-
in-progress, doubtful debts or completed contracts which may be subject to
rectification claims. As the business grows, the level of provisions increases.
Surplus or redundant stock and work-in-progress should be sold for scrap value,
because it has to be assumed that due diligence will effectively scrutinize the
inventory and the acquirer will expect adequate provisions to be made against
profit and asset valuation. Furthermore, the existence of surplus or redundant
stock and work-in-progress is tantamount to parading management mistakes.
The vendors should present the balance sheet to prospective purchasers at the
outset of the sale process without any surplus cash. Private equity houses usually
The period used to depreciate each type of fixed asset influences the profit
reported. If you adopt shorter periods for depreciation, this will understate profits
compared to other companies.
Chapter 5
Commercial features
need grooming
Take positive action to retain key staff ..............................................26
High salaries, even exceptional ones, and the share of annual profits are not
enough to avoid the loss of key people. There is always the risk that a
competitor will make someone a better offer. In subsidiaries of listed groups,
key people are likely to have valuable share options which would lapse on leaving
and this can be a deterrent.
Be wary of accountancy firms and other professional advisers which sell ‘ready-
made’ share option schemes for private companies. The odds are that you may
need a bespoke scheme to achieve the motivation and protection you seek.
An acquirer values a company on the basis of profit, cash flow generation and
strategic rationale. Development potential will not enhance the offer, unless the
vendors have highlighted the opportunity and the acquirer intends to exploit
the benefit straight away. Development value which may become available at
some future date, will not attract an increased offer.
Worse still, the acquirer may have recognized the potential and remain silent.
An MBO team approached a major house builder, agreed a deal in principle
for them to buy the site for housing development and to find another site for
the business and finance the building of new premises for them – which was
negotiated before the buy-out was completed and without the knowledge of the
vendors. Afterwards, the vendors were furious but perhaps they should have
been furious at their own failure to recognize and to seize the opportunity.
When the vendors wish to benefit from future development potential, the land
and property should be extracted from the company in the most tax effective
way available, shortly before legal completion. The acquirer should be offered
a lease of suitable duration, but it should not be less than three years unless they
wish to relocate the business as soon as possible. Three years gives an acquirer
ample time to plan and execute a relocation, but a one-year lease would be
unattractive because it would create undue pressure to relocate swiftly. Vendors
will appreciate that the profit and loss account will need to be adjusted to reflect
the anticipated annual lease and service charges, which will replace the depre-
ciation and amortization charges.
Some vendors believe that an acquirer will pay considerably more at legal comple-
tion to reflect the future opportunity they will benefit from, but this is
improbable. At worst, overseas expansion which has not achieved break-even
may be viewed as an undesirable vulnerability, and at best would only be rewarded
as part of an earn-out deal.
The deal is to ensure that diversification and overseas expansion are sufficiently
advanced as to demonstrably benefit the vendors or it may make more sense
to put the plans on hold and present them to prospective acquirers as a valuable
opportunity they may wish to pursue.
Although the trade press and websites are hungry for news about companies
of all sizes, the PR may not succeed in creating awareness amongst overseas
acquirers. In addition to the advisory costs and management time required, twelve
months are needed from finding suitable PR advisers to achieving a worthwhile
amount of media coverage.
vendors and given access to a data room, which may be ‘virtual’ as access can
be provided by a secure website. Bidders will be invited to make a second round
bid, from which a preferred bidder will be selected and one kept in reserve.
The data room would usually contain the vendor due diligence carried out by
an accountancy firm not the auditors, in order to be independent and other special-
ists such as legal, pensions and environmental experts.
Usually, when a private company is being sold, heads of agreement are signed
and only then is the preferred purchaser allowed access to carry out their own
due diligence.
Chapter 6
Unsolicited approaches – potential
jackpot or major distraction?
Recognize a random mail shot and act accordingly........................32
If the timing is not right for you, then I urge you to bin the letter without a second
thought. Even if the timing is right, I believe that a systematic marketing campaign
to sell the business may be needed to maximize the likelihood of success and
to achieve the best deal.
If, despite this, you are tempted to respond, please do so with caution. Make it
clear at the outset that the company is categorically not for sale, but you wish
to know why you were approached. A telephone call is likely to be more revealing
than a letter or email response. You should ask:
You should be ready to press this point, because a junk mailer may know nothing
more than the company address and a turnover figure. So, if you are simply
given a standard response such as ‘you are a well respected company in your
sector’, be ready to ask supplementary questions such as:
• Yes, but tell me what products and services which we supply are of
particular interest to you or your client?
If the approach was from an intermediary, you should ask these additional
questions:
• What are the company, person, job title and telephone number on
whose behalf you made contact?
If the answers amount only to vague waffle, then you know it is a junk mail
approach and bin the letter.
• What deals have you completed in the past two years? – because an
investor seeking a first deal is likely to find difficulty in raising the
necessary finance without any track record.
• What was the value of your deals, the deal structure and which
institutions provided the finance?
• If so, have you already identified a suitable person and what is their
track-record? – because if they do not have a first class person with
relevant sector experience the chance of obtaining finance will be
undermined.
You must recognize that the vast majority of letters from investors, including
those dressed up as a limited company but are really a one-person operation,
are so speculative as to be nothing more than junk mail. You should adopt the
stance that they have to convince you to take them seriously by giving you tangible
proof.
• If the acquisition is over-geared and the business fails you will have
lost out.
If the mail shot is directly from a management buy-in team, it may appear attrac-
tive but the overwhelming majority of MBI candidates fail to secure a deal, so
much so that the anecdotal evidence is that less than 1% succeed!
Typically MBI candidates have been made redundant and intend to use their
pay-off to finance their search for an MBI opportunity and to have enough left
to invest in the deal. To maximize their chances many will do a fairly random
mail shot approach to hundreds of companies. Some MBI candidates attach a
letter from a private equity house offering to finance them in an acquisition up
to a stated value. This may appear to be evidence of available finance, but it is
only a letter of comfort which will encourage the candidate to offer an oppor-
tunity to them. Any financial backing will be strictly subject to their standard
investment criteria.
The truth is, however, that they will have to prove to a private equity house that
they are the ideal candidate to manage the business in order to get financial
backing. This means the MBI candidate must:
If the adviser says their client does not wish to reveal their identity at this stage,
clearly caution is needed. The client may be:
A meeting with a private equity house may be informative, but recognize that
if you are to do a private equity deal you should carefully pick three or four houses
to compete against each other in order to get the best deal. The value of their
offers and the deal structures are likely to vary considerably.
If it appears to be a serious strategic buyer, and the timing makes sense for you,
then you may wish to find out their identity but you should insist on knowing
who you will meet in advance.
With private companies, the private equity house may be prepared, or even happy,
to develop a relationship with the owners over a two or three year period before
investing.
If a buy-out does seem to make some sense, you should explore the feasibility
of an MBO and alternative avenues with your professional adviser before allowing
the management team to proceed.
The management team should be told the process to be adopted and it made
clear that no private equity bidder would be allowed access to the management
unless they were selected as the preferred bidder. You may wish to adopt a
constructive approach to your management by indicating that if a private equity
offer is comparable to the best one from a trade buyer, or even very nearly so,
then you will favor them.
A VIMBO puts you in control of the process for much longer. Three or four private
equity houses, keen to pursue the investment opportunity, are invited to make
an offer for the company and their proposed deal structure, without meeting
the management team. Only when a preferred bidder is selected, will access to
management be allowed. You will need to explain the process to your team at
the outset and tell them that provided the best offer is acceptable to you, then
you will be happy for a deal to go ahead.
It is possible, however, that strategic buyers are essentially non-existent and your
advisers may feel that a VIMBO is inappropriate, so an MBO is probably the
best opportunity and the timing may be right as well.
When you tell your management team you are prepared to consider an MBO,
it is essential that you specify the following conditions:
The advisers to the management team will be eager to have a cost indemnity
from you at the outset to underwrite some of their fees if the buy-out fails for
any reason, but you should not consider a request for a cost indemnity for the
management team until you have received an acceptable offer.
A real life case illustrates just what can go wrong. The owners of a private facil-
ities management company received an invitation to lunch from the UK
managing director of their head-on competitor, part of a world-wide company
listed on Wall Street. Curious, they went along and were flattered and aston-
ished. They received an indicative offer over lunch beyond their wildest
dreams, payable in full on legal completion.
Furthermore, they were told it might be possible to increase the offer provided
that three senior directors of the competitor could spend several weeks
carrying out a detailed on-site appraisal of the business to quantify the substan-
tial synergistic benefits and cost rationalization savings from a total integration
of the two businesses. Almost immediately after the launch they agreed to the
request and gave unrestricted access to a head-on competitor! The offer was
increased by more than 10%.
I was invited to act for the vendors to improve upon ‘the offer’ they had received,
and expressed my astonishment. I offered to telephone the Vice President M&A,
in Chicago to confirm the status of ‘the offer’ free of charge, before wishing to
be appointed. They felt I was unduly suspicious but were reluctantly convinced
it might be a good idea. The answer I got devastated the owners! Head Office
were totally unaware of the acquisition approach and told me that the UK
managing director had no authority to make an approach, let alone make a verbal
offer, and they would not even contemplate any UK acquisition until their existing
subsidiary had been restored to acceptable profitability.
Remember the good old truism. If anything sounds too good to be true, it almost
certainly is too good to be true.
There is a simple test you should always apply to any so-called offer. Insist it is
put in writing, duly signed and seek confirmation of the level of internal author-
ization it has. If the vendors had done this they would not have revealed their
To satisfy yourself that a direct approach from a strategic buyer could be a poten-
tial jackpot opportunity, establish:
• the buyer has the financial resources to fund the purchase before you
even agree to meet – a small listed company may require you to accept
a large number of their shares as part of the purchase consideration;
or a private company may offer you shares in anticipation of their
stockmarket listing (which may not happen).
• you understand at the outset that the individual has obtained the
requisite internal approval to make the approach – it is more
commonplace than you might imagine for an executive to initiate a
deal without any authority, in order to impress as a go-getter and hope
to ‘sell the deal’ to the group board in due course.
Chapter 7
Professional advisers need
choosing and appointing carefully
Corporate finance advisers – their role and benefits.......................43
Accountancy firms...............................................................................51
Business brokers..................................................................................52
Solicitors ...............................................................................................53
Outside help is costly, and there can be no guarantee that a deal will result. Despite
this, however, external advisers are commonly used by private companies and
many listed groups, because the vendors lack the technical knowledge, relevant
experience and management time needed to ensure a successful deal. Private
company owners will find that selling a business is a prolonged emotional roller
coaster, with the added stress that the deal may collapse shortly before antici-
pated completion.
In order to decide what outside advice and help may be needed, or beneficial,
it is necessary to identify the tasks to be done and the expertise required.
• identifying the options available, both now and in the foreseeable future;
• solicitors; and
• tax advisors.
• What deals has the person completed during the past twelve months?
How large and complex were these? Who were the advisers to the other
side?
• steering the deal safely to legal completion, which typically takes six
to ten weeks from signing Heads of Agreement;
The real job of the corporate finance adviser, however, is to obtain the best possible
deal for the vendors with an acceptable purchaser. In this way, their fee should
be repaid several times over by the enhanced deal they achieve for the vendors.
• Asking you what deal value you want and readily claiming they will
achieve and probably better your figure – so don’t tell them your view
on valuation first.
• Cynically adopting the ‘the more the merrier’ approach because they
don’t know which businesses will sell, so the more chances they have
to sell the more profit they will make. Even well-known advisers are
tempted, especially if a deal leader needs to win more assignments –
always ask how busy the deal leader and the whole firm are, and the
name of all the companies the deal leader has sold in the last 12 months.
• Switch selling is commonplace, namely the star deal maker does the
pitching to you but is hardly seen by you afterwards – seek personal
assurances as outlined later in this chapter under the section on Create
an effective beauty parade.
Some corporate finance advisors will ask that the commitment fee should be
paid in full before they commence work, and this should be flatly rejected. Payment
should only be made for measurable progress and ideally, a fixed amount would
be payable when each of the following milestones of progress has been achieved:
If the project is aborted for any reason, or put on hold temporarily, there should
be no obligation to pay the full commitment fee. The amount to be paid should
reflect the progress made to date.
4 3%
10 2% to 2.5%
25 1.5% to 2%
100 1% to 1.5%
This should be flatly rejected because the anecdotal evidence I have studiously
collected over the years is that less than 25% of vendors receive the maximum
possible earn-out payment.
• the advisers receive their earn-out based on how much you receive
and only when you are paid
• if they flatly refuse this, say that you will choose another adviser who
is prepared to accept a ‘pay when paid’ basis and they may well
capitulate. If they insist that the fee paid at legal completion should
cover the earn-out as well as the amount payable on legal completion,
insist that it should be the lower of:
– a conservative calculation of what you really expect to receive from
the earn-out; or
Not surprisingly this appeals to a lot of vendor clients, but is often used by corpo-
rate finance advisers to deliver them a bonanza fee if they get less than a really
good deal for you. A recent real life example illustrates this device. The vendor
of a care home business for the elderly told the adviser that he would not sell
for less than £20 million payable on completion, and privately believed that more
than £25 million was achievable.
£’000 £’000
DEAL VALUE £M INVERTED FEE TOTAL INVERTED 1.75 FLAT
ELEMENT FEE £’000
FEE
20 90 370.5 350
Up to 20 1.65
20 to 25 3.0
over 25 5.00
17 280.5 280.5
20 370.5 330.0
22 470.5 390.0
25 695.5 480.0
27 895.5 580.0
30 1195.5 730.0
• the adviser only gets a higher total fee on a deal of £22M or more
• for a deal worth £25M or more, the adviser receives and will deserve
a significant uplift on the 1.75% flat fee.
You should never accept a fee which rises above 5%, unless it only applies to a
spectacular deal value, but plenty of corporate finance advisers suggest 71⁄2%,
10% and even 15% tranches, which they apply to the maximum deal value
including the earn-out.
One vendor recently received a disbursement charge of nearly £30,000 plus VAT,
which included:
• meeting room hire when they did not have one available in their offices;
• Accountancy firms
• Investment banks
• What is the largest deal you have completed in the last year?
• How many deals have you completed in the past twelve months and
what is the average deal value?
The key features which differentiate corporate finance boutiques from each other
are the quality of their research to identify known serious buyers worldwide
and the marketing process they adopt to sell your business, so test them out by
asking the following questions:
Ideally, the answer will be that the decision-maker in each company will be
telephoned to find out their appetite for acquisitions. This should reduce the
list to about 10 known serious buyers, with a similar number on reserve. If the
answer is that every company will be emailed an anonymous description of the
business and invited to sign a confidentiality agreement to receive a full infor-
mation memorandum – beware. This is likely to prostitute your business because
most people will obtain a copy to satisfy their curiosity.
Accountancy firms
Major firms have corporate finance departments in cities and large towns world-
wide. Some offices only handle deals worth at least £10 million, and their regional
offices may accept deals from £5 million upwards. So it is important to choose
a firm which will view your deal as attractive for them to handle.
Although they have a worldwide network of offices, check that fee sharing
happens when an overseas office finds the purchaser. Otherwise, there is no
incentive for overseas offices to help.
Second tier accountancy firms typically have a specialist corporate finance depart-
ment in capital cities and some limited presence elsewhere. They handle deals
worth £5 million plus and are competitive with the boutiques on quality of service
and fee levels.
Small accountancy firms welcome corporate finance work because of the prospect
of lucrative fees. Unless they have at least one partner working full-time on acqui-
sitions and disposals, however, it is unlikely that they have the requisite experience.
Sickness and holiday cover may be inadequate, and the ability to research overseas
buyers may be modest.
This smacks of laziness to me and the reality is that private companies need to
be ‘sold’ by the vendors at a face-to-face meeting. Talking to many buyers has
revealed that unless they are really keen, the process will put them off pursuing
their interest, especially prospective overseas acquirers.
Investment banks
Most investment banks have minimum deal values ranging from £50 million to
£250 million, so they are inappropriate for most private company sales.
When investment banks are selling a subsidiary of a listed group, the process
they often adopt is a controlled auction which involves:
Business brokers
Brokers generally handle deals up to about £3 million. In Europe, including the
UK, business brokers tend to offer only an introduction service between buyers
and sellers. In some ways, this may be compared with the services provided by
the traditional estate agent.
It must be understood that the fee basis most business brokers adopt in the UK
is ‘no deal – no fee’. Even more significant, they usually expect to receive their
fee from the purchaser, although they have been appointed by the vendors to
sell their business.
• encourage people to sell their business rather than pursue other options;
and
It should not be assumed that business brokers are experts in valuation, taxation
or negotiation. Positive proof is required. It is uncommon for business brokers
to be involved in the negotiation at all. Most business brokers assume the stance
of the nice guy in the middle ‘who does not take sides’. Furthermore, prospec-
tive purchasers have a marked tendency not to want business brokers present
during negotiations. In one instance where the broker suggested negotiating
on behalf of the vendors, the prospective purchaser said ‘I am happy to pay your
scale fee for a completed deal but I will not have you present to act against me’.
The ‘no deal – no fee’ approach may make brokers look attractive, but some of
them gossip. They are keen to tell as many people as possible which businesses
they are selling, not only to find purchasers for a particular company but also
to convince people that they have a large number of businesses for sale at any
time. Gossip can damage a company which is for sale if the information travels
back to either employees or customers. Strict confidentiality must be expected
and demanded of any adviser connected with a disposal, and business brokers
should be reminded of this.
• 1% of the balance.
Some purchasers will negotiate a lower fee which makes them a less attractive
purchaser for the broker.
A few brokers charge a fee for the buyer and the seller, which should be flatly
rejected because it is double charging.
Solicitors
Most private companies need to use a firm of solicitors occasionally and groups
may have an internal legal department, but this does not mean that either is
equipped to handle a disposal because it is markedly different work from property,
litigation or general commercial matters.
The solicitors need to work full-time on acquisitions and disposals to have suffi-
cient experience. A partner in a medium-sized firm should be capable of handling
deals up to £50 million, and will charge significantly less than a major interna-
tional firm. Most cities and large towns have at least one suitable firm to use,
and are likely to charge less than large firms of solicitors in a capital city.
Some solicitors may offer to save you money by negotiating the deal so that
corporate finance advisers are unnecessary. Generally, solicitors do not have
relevant experience to negotiate a deal and are unlikely to be able to find buyers
internationally.
Many vendors effectively hand a blank cheque to their solicitors, because fees
are not even discussed!
When you meet prospective solicitors, ask for written confirmation of:
• the role they will carry out, especially their involvement in the
compilation and management of a data-room;
Tax advisers
Many entrepreneurs have a personal tax adviser, which may not be part of the
audit firm. If the personal tax adviser has adequate relevant experience to handle
the tax issues arising from a disposal, it makes sense to use them because they
know your entire tax history. A new adviser will have to charge you for learning
your history because tax considerations must reflect your overall situation.
Capital gains tax rules on company disposals change almost annually and often
recent precedent cases have an important bearing on the application of the rules,
so it is vital that your tax adviser has current full-time involvement with disposal
work.
Some vendors naively think that their situation is straightforward and tax advice
is an unnecessary expense. This is nonsense. A disposal is pregnant with tax
issues to be addressed in order to minimize the capital gains tax payable and it
is strongly recommended to obtain ‘tax clearance’ by the tax office prior to legal
completion, to give the vendors comfort that the deal appears to be structured
acceptably.
If you are unsure which individual to contact, telephone the personal assistant
to the senior partner and ask who is the relevant partner to handle the size,
complexity and business sector of your deal. When you speak to the person,
outline your needs and the agenda you wish to address when you meet. For
corporate finance advisers, the agenda should include:
• the probable deal value range and likely deal structure; and
• May I have the name, job title and telephone number of three clients
for whom you have completed deals, if I decide in principle to appoint
you?
• Did the adviser personally lead the team for you and attend meetings
when you felt it appropriate?
• Did you get an outstanding deal, first class service and value for money?
Chemistry and style are truly important and this will become apparent during
long, tedious and contentious negotiation meetings.
For example, the engagement letter may say that if you reject a written offer or
you withdraw after Heads of Agreement are signed, you are obliged to pay their
success fee in full.
I have always believed passionately that if you do not complete a deal for any
reason, you should not pay a success fee.
I urge you to obtain a copy of the engagement letter at the same time as their
fee proposal and to go though it line by line. Then negotiate the amendments
you want from your preferred adviser before appointing them. Flatly refuse,
Chapter 8
Value your business from the
buyer’s standpoint
Adjusted profits before tax are of the essence .................................59
Some vendors pay about £10,000 to have their business valued as a prelude to
a sale. Often, this is carried out purely based on audited accounts without even
visiting the premises or any assessment of the future prospects of the business
and buyer appetites. I regard it as a complete waste of money and a much more
informed opinion should be provided by prospective corporate finance advisers
you meet and completely free of charge.
A valuation of a business for sale must take into account the factors which influ-
ence buyers, namely:
• the adjusted profit before tax to reflect the true profit the buyer will
inherit;
From the vendor’s standpoint it is worth adjusting profits for the previous three
years if this will help to establish a record of rising profits. One-off events which
may have significantly reduced profits in a year include:
Additionally there may be other factors which will enhance profits for the new
owners, such as:
• the intention that a director will retire upon the sale of the business
and will not need to be replaced, or only by a lower cost executive;
• the savings arising from the termination of relatives working for the
business at inflated salaries;
It is particularly important that the profits for the previous financial year and
the current one are adjusted to show the most favorable picture which can be
portrayed accurately.
The reality is that the acquiring company should be able to provide the resources
required at a much lower incremental cost than is presently allocated by the
existing group. Equally, it must be realized that the overall impact on the profits
of the vendor group will be significantly larger than the profits reported by the
subsidiary. The reason is that in practice it will not be possible to reduce group
costs by the amount allocated to the subsidiary. For example, the sale of a
subsidiary is unlikely to reduce commensurately the amount which needs to be
spent centrally on research and development or public relations.
Examples of the extra costs which will be taken into account by a prospective
purchaser are:
The acquiring company will take into account opportunities for increased profits
as a result of acquiring the business. It is equally important that these are quanti-
fied by the vendor as well. Typical opportunities to increase profits are:
The aim must be to negotiate a purchase price which reflects a share of the
additional value created by the profit opportunities arising from the acquisition
to be enjoyed by the vendors.
A scarcity of acquisition targets becomes rarity when there is only one attrac-
tive company available to acquire in a country in a particular market segment.
Recently, US medical and orthopedic product companies have been keen to
acquire in the UK and Ireland, but the lack of private companies which are suitable
acquisition targets means that scarcity is rapidly becoming rarity value. In such
a situation, competitive bidding may deliver an outstanding deal for vendors.
The defensive need to acquire may arise when a private company creates a new
product, service or distribution network which is likely to threaten the existing
businesses of a major company.
In these circumstances, the company under threat is likely to take into account
not only the additional profit resulting from the acquisition of the private
company, but also the threat to the existing profits if the competitor is allowed
to continue. The advantage may prove to be only temporary, so the timing of
the sale is important.
Nonetheless, in order to present the best possible picture, the most recent and
audited balance sheet should be adjusted to reflect the current net asset worth
by taking into account:
When the net asset backing is low compared to the total valuation, this is likely
to cause purchasers to decrease the up-front payment and to increase the propor-
tion of the earn-out consideration. For example, the net asset backing of many
service companies may be as low as 10% to 20% of the total valuation.
The only true test of realizable value is the best deal offered in writing by a short-
list of known serious buyers worldwide.
One vendor said to me ‘I can name no less than seven major companies willing
to pay a premium price for my business and ready to offer more than £10 million’.
It was a retirement sale, accelerated by serious ill health. A thoroughly compre-
hensive worldwide marketing campaign failed to achieve a single offer. The
business was then sold to management, by now out of pressing necessity for
only £4.3 million. On a legitimate valuation basis ignoring the lack of appetite,
a deal worth £6 million to £7 million could have been expected, but I believe the
truly realizable value was £4.3 million, because there was a complete lack of interest
from trade buyers.
The adjusted profit before tax for the most recent financial year can be
converted into an overall valuation in the following way:
• deduct a full 30% corporation tax charge in the UK, because the acquirer
will undoubtedly pay the highest rate of tax applicable;
• identify the sector average price earnings ratio, and reduce it by 40%;
Adjusted profit before tax for most recent financial year £500,000
Equally, if the business is large enough and suitable to obtain an AIM or full
stock market listing immediately, it would be wrong to discount the sector price
earnings ratio at all.
Most listed acquirers are likely to seek a pre-tax return on investment in the current
year of at least 15% and 20% in the second year post-acquisition.
The maximum value to achieve a 15% return on current year pre-tax profits of
£300,000 is £2 million, and £3 million to deliver a 20% year in the second year
post-acquisition.
It must be stressed, however, these are little more than guestimates, but do indicate
a probable range of values.
A real life example illustrates just how unrealistic a formulae valuation may be.
The owner of a PR company said to me “my auditors have formally valued my
business to be worth £6 million”. They had completely ignored the fact, or may
well have been totally unaware, that buyer appetites worldwide in the sector
were extremely low because of difficult trading conditions. Also, the business
was heavily dependent on only a handful of clients. The vendors own profit figures
were:
Chapter 9
Benefit from expert
streetwise tactics
Timing really is of the essence............................................................67
This chapter has been written to share with you some of the streetwise tactics
I have developed and used over a lifetime of buying and selling companies. These
are the tactics which not only get you the best possible deal, but which may well
make the difference between getting a cracking deal or failing to sell your business.
Timing is important in terms of buyer appetites as well, which may add to the
overall timescale. For example, during the last time the marketing services sector
was suffering worldwide from sharply reduced client demand, it was difficult
to sell a first rate advertising agency or PR company at all, let alone obtain a
first class deal.
Timing is equally important regarding when to begin the sales process during
the financial year. Ideally, Heads of Agreement should be signed two or three
months before the financial year end because the forecast to the year end should
be sufficiently robust by then to be confirmed by the due diligence process. In
this way, the buyer should be encouraged to value the business on the current
year performance and you will achieve legal completion before the year-end.
If you allow six to nine months for the sale process. This means your corporate
finance advisers should start their work by the end of the first quarter of the
financial year.
Some vendors mistakenly aim to sign heads of agreement as soon as the audited
accounts will have been fast tracked and available for due diligence. Firstly, the
valuation will undoubtedly focus on the actual result because it is too early to
give credence to the budgeted profit for the current year. Worse still, however,
if the new financial year has started below budget it may unsettle the purchaser
and even cause them to delay completion until performance improves.
A major company privately felt smug that they had acquired a business founded
and managed by three outstanding executives, but the earn-out required excep-
tional results for them to earn any more money. Within six months, the vendors
disliked the intervention and interference they faced, and the market place deteri-
orated sharply so that they faced the prospect of not receiving a penny under
the earn-out. One Friday afternoon, the three executives announced their
immediate departure and the acquirer faced a gaping management hole.
By now, I should have convinced you that you need to downplay your continued
importance to the business and stress the experience and calibre of your senior
executives. Ideally, you should be able to suggest that one person is rapidly
becoming capable enough to replace you.
The features of the deal you need to outline when dealing with a trade buyer
include:
• Make it clear that you will not accept substantial part-payment in shares
of a small listed company or one that is soon to be listed (hopefully).
Both offers were flatly rejected for good reason, but wasted time and effort for
both sides could have been avoided by making it clear at the outset that payment
would need to be in cash.
Above all, be realistic. If the asset backing will be a small proportion of the deal
value, or the business is heavily dependent upon two or three customers or a
single supplier, or there is a lack of management continuity, any one of these
features will make an earn-out almost inevitable. Simply to reject an earn-out
is likely to cause bidders to drop out.
• you want only a one-year earn-out, and would not consider longer
than two years; and
• a wish to exclude a valuable freehold from the deal and merely to sign
a medium-term lease with you; or
• A major customer had given notice not to renew their three-year supply
contact. The positive was that the cause was supplier rationalization
as a result of a merger, and the vendor was able to announce that a new
customer had just signed a major contact and two other opportunities
looked promising.
Also, you need to know that almost invariably I have found that when four or
more written offers are received for a business, the highest one will be at least
50% more than the lowest, and in a significant minority of cases more than twice
the lowest offer.
When you have received either a verbal offer or a written one you should be
ready to indicate the valuation you expect to receive. Do not be tempted to pitch
your figure unrealistically high, because buyers may simply withdraw because
they feel it is pointless to increase their offer somewhat as the gap is too large.
The proportion of debt finance used to finance buy-outs and buy-ins means that
there is little room for manoeuvre over the deal value. So a dip in current year
performance or the reluctance of lenders to provide the assumed level of debt
will probably result in a price chisel at a late stage. Some cynics claim that private
equity buyers have no intention of paying the price agreed in the heads of agree-
ment, because they are determined to find grounds to reduce their offer. It may
seem this way to an aggrieved vendor, but some private equity houses make a
legitimate virtue out of their record of consistently delivering the deal set out
in the heads of agreement.
So some vendors do feel they have been seduced over deal value, but probably
overlook the fact that circumstances have changed or current year perform-
ance has declined.
Any seduction is likely to take place much earlier in my experience. Private equity
executives are prepared to spend considerable time to persuade a vendor, or a
management team, to deal only with them or at least so that they become the
preferred bidder.
It is essential that at an early stage, you not only meet three or four private equity
houses but you obtain a written offer from them outlining the deal value and,
most importantly, the financing structure. Deal values will vary somewhat but
there are likely to be other significant differences as well, for example a proposal
that you:
• accept part payment by an unsecured loan note, which will pay interest
half-yearly, but if the business should fail then the note is worthless.
When selecting your private equity partner, chemistry and mutual trust are impor-
tant but not at the cost of an unattractive deal value or onerous financing structure.
Once again, timing is of the essence. When the purchaser believes they have
reached agreement and says “lets shake hands on the deal”, my advice is that
you do not shake on a deal until you have said words to the effect that:
• We have NOT sinned by omitting anything that will affect the price
you are ready to pay.
• We have NOT overstated the current year sales and profit forecasts.
• We have NOT overstated the future prospects for the business NOR
understated any vulnerabilities.
• We are confident that your due diligence will merely fill in details within
the outline information you have already received.
Private equity houses intensely dislike paying abortive fees because these are
charged to their profit and loss account, whereas fees become part of the acqui-
sition cost of a legally completed deal.
As you appreciate, however, if you make these claims and due diligence does
reveal shortcomings then inevitably there will be a price chisel.
• you have already found the buyer, so their work is considerably less
and their fee should be considerably lower as well because their best
opportunity to add value is to find the buyer for you;
• worse still, they have only one prospective purchaser so they tend to
feel their chances of a successful deal are inevitably lower than when
marketing the business to a shortlist of known serious buyers.
• you retain psychological advantage over the buyer because they made
an unsolicited approach to you, whereas when the business is
marketed to short-listed buyers then in truth it is for sale;
• the timing makes sense for you – if it is definitely the wrong time then
you should say so at the outset.
• you believe that the prospective buyer is a suitable owner not only for
the shareholders but for key staff as well – in a recent case, 24 senior
staff had left the prospective acquirer to join the vendors business over
the past five years and there was considerable animosity. The vendors
felt there would be uproar and a walk out by key people.
• you require a written offer quickly which sets out the deal structure,
the form of purchase consideration and key conditions, and most
importantly represents a full offer as a basis for further negotiation.
• ensuring only one person speaks at any time and no one is cut short
or interrupted;
At the outset, outline the features which are important to you and your reasons,
but do not present them bluntly as inevitable deal breakers unless you get your
own way, because it creates entirely the wrong atmosphere.
• your wish to sell 100% of the equity at legal completion – rather than
receiving an offer based on the purchase of, say, only 51% initially and
the remainder to be bought in two separate tranches.
• you are not prepared to partly finance a deal with a private equity house
by accepting an unsecured loan note, which cannot be redeemed for,
say, five years or on an earlier exit, because a lot could go wrong in
the meantime.
Be ready to trade concessions, so that you secure a valuable benefit for yourself
but are able to accommodate the other side in a cost effective way to you. They
key to achieving this is to ask questions so that you fully understand the reasoning
behind the concession requested, so that you may be able to accommodate it
in a more acceptable way for you.
It is important to start off by asking for large concessions and gradually reduce
the impact of them, but perhaps even more important to systematically reduce
the cost of concessions you are prepared to give. In this way, you are sending
a covert but powerful message that you have nearly reached the limit of your
ability to grant any more concessions.
Chapter 10
Manage the due diligence
process effectively
Make sure collating due diligence information
does not delay legal completion.........................................................78
In a controlled auction, several companies may be given access to carry out some
due diligence, on the basis of their initial offers, so that they are able to make
a final offer, before selecting one preferred bidder to negotiate heads of agree-
ment and a period of exclusivity granted. As before, another buyer should be
kept in reserve.
The aim must be to minimize the time required from accepting an offer to legal
completion. The deal is at risk and could be aborted because:
• you lose a major customer, which you must notify to the acquirer, and
could result in their withdrawal from the deal or demanding a major
price reduction which is unacceptable to you; and
• registered number;
FINANCIAL
• updated forecast profit and loss account for the current financial year;
• all bank facilities and bank facility agreements of the company or any
of its subsidiaries, including company credit cards;
BUSINESS
• any acquisitions/mergers that have taken place in the last three years.
• details of all staff by name, job title, date of joining, date of birth, salary
and bonus, place of employment, fringe benefits and notice period;
TRADING
PREMISES
• key employees who have left during the last three years;
• employees who have resigned in the last 12 months and copies of their
letters of resignation;
• employees who have been dismissed in the last 12 months and copies
of any dismissal letters and agreements, and records of disciplinary
procedures;
• the nature of any personal data held by the company or any of its
subsidiaries;
LITIGATION
REGULATION
INSURANCE
TECHNOLOGY
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
TAXATION
• all taxation returns, documents and correspondence for the last three
years, giving details of any penalties and interest, paid or outstanding;
• the acquirer;
The initial delivery of due diligence information should be largely complete, but
inevitably there will be documents to be added or an updated version produced
subsequently, so each item should be clearly dated to avoid confusion.
Electronic data rooms are commonplace today and are virtually essential for
controlled auctions because simultaneous access is available. Lawyers and corpo-
rate finance advisers have the requisite software to facilitate compilation. Some
people use a combination of hard copy and electronic data, with the use of secure
passwords to control access.
It is highly unusual for the vendors to be allowed to see the due diligence report,
or even sections which are critical. So the best prevention is to develop a rapport
with the due diligence investigation team and to encourage them to discuss any
aspects of the business they are unhappy about so that you can help them ‘to
get to the bottom of the situation’. It often works!
Chapter 11
Steer the deal safely to legal
completion
Proceed towards a heads of agreement negotiation meeting .......87
The first major step to convert an offer letter into signed Heads of Agreement,
which is essentially a more detailed description of the deal and should be written
in commercial language. It must be clearly understood that the Heads of Agree-
ment do not oblige either side to legally complete a deal. Typically, only a few
parts of the Heads of Agreement create a binding obligation, for example:
• Non-disclosure of the deal prior to legal completion and only then with
the written permission of the other – this is important protection for
the vendors because many do not want relatives, friends and neighbors
to know just how rich they have become.
The heads of agreement is typically between about 3 and 6 pages long, and is
useful to brief each set of lawyers about the contents of the deal.
Typically, the acquirer will produce a draft agenda for the Heads of Agreement
negotiation meeting. It is important that the vendor ensures any additional points
are addressed because afterwards the acquirer may be unwilling to negotiate
any other points on the grounds that these should have been raised at the meeting.
If the vendor has appointed corporate finance advisers, then they should lead
the negotiations on behalf of the vendor. The advisers should be sufficiently knowl-
edgeable about the legal and tax issues for it to be unnecessary for either lawyers
or tax advisers to attend. Lawyers and tax advisers have a habit of seeking to
negotiate technical points which should only be addressed later, and there is a
real risk that the discussions will be adversarial.
• Confirmation of the offer. Even if the purchaser has said there can be
no further improved offer, a determined but friendly attempt should
be made to gain some improvement.
• Pensions. The question of pension transfer is often one of the last issues
to be resolved, and it might simply be agreed that the pensions advisers
to both sides will meet as soon as possible to negotiate an agreement.
The number of weeks required will vary according to the size and complexity
of the deal. In a straightforward case, due diligence may require only two weeks,
but in a complex acquisition it could take five or six weeks, especially if the initial
work prompts the need for supplementary investigation .
• the net tangible asset backing is extremely low compared with the
purchase price.
Once legal completion occurs the company will be expected to adopt the acquirer’s
accounting policies. There have been a few exceptions, however, because of partic-
ular circumstances whereby the company has been allowed to continue with
existing accounting policies purely for earn-out calculation purposes and the
figures have been converted afterwards.
To protect the vendors, it is essential that profit is defined precisely for earn-
out purposes. Typically the definition should be based upon:
• profit before tax arising from the ordinary course of business – which
would rule out a capital gain on disposal of a freehold property and
similar exceptional items;
• an agreed and specified annual charge for services the acquirer will
provide such as audit, tax advice, legal, payroll and pension
administration, etc;
• a specific ‘rate card’ for group services which the company intends
to use when required – examples could include rent of additional space,
transport, etc;
• a notional interest credit for any interest earned as a result of the group
placing surplus cash on overnight or short-term deposit;
• agreed rules for profit sharing when carrying out business with other
group subsidiaries.
The profit thresholds set for earn-out payments to be made must be negotiated
using the above definition of profit. There may be other circumstances,
however, which must be taken into account when agreeing the profit thresh-
olds, for example if:
• the acquirer wishes the company to launch sales offices in Europe and
the likelihood is that this will detract from the ability to maximize earn-
out payments, then it should be negotiated that all incomes and expenses
arising are excluded for earn-out purposes.
Cost indemnities are a binding obligation on the vendors to reimburse the acquirer
for liabilities which relate to the period up to legal completion date. The most
onerous indemnities relate to taxation matters and the buyers lawyers will usually
seek protection for seven years – because the Inland Revenue has a period of
six years to claim additional tax payments. The vendors cannot get out of a tax
obligation by claiming that both they and their auditors were completely unaware
of the situation. Ignorance is categorically not a defence.
A warranty puts the burden of proof on the acquirer to demonstrate that they
would have reduced the purchase price, and most importantly to quantify the
amount, had they known that the company was in breach of a warranty at legal
completion. The buyer may ask for a three-year warranty period, but this is exces-
sive and it should be possible to negotiate a two-year period.
I reject this completely, but sometimes the corporate finance advisers and lawyers
acting for the vendors seem to me either lazy on this point or easily persuaded
that it is fair and reasonable. It is not!
Private equity investors often take a hard line with regard to these liabilities.
Their stance is likely to be a flat refusal to accept any liability as they have had
no active part in the executive management of the business. The shareholder
directors must recognize that this is likely to be an issue and should raise it with
their private equity investors well before legal completion.
Most acquirers are likely to readily accept that only individual claims of at least
£2,500 each will count towards the minimum aggregate value before any warranty
claims are made, but it should be possible to negotiate a minimum figure of £10,000
for each claim.
Acquirers are well aware of the management time and professional fees involved
in pursuing a warranty claim if litigation is required. Consequently, they should
readily agree that the minimum aggregate claim to be pursued is £50,000 and
it may well be possible for the vendor to negotiate a minimum figure between
£100,000 and £250,000 depending upon the value of the transaction.
Some vendors mistakenly feel they should not disclose any existing breaches
to the warranty claims demanded by the buyer, because it may unsettle the
acquirer. By contrast, the vendors should work with their lawyers, and corpo-
rate finance advisers if used, to make a comprehensive disclosure of every possible
breach of a warranty.
If the acquirer finds the disclosures are deliberately vague or all embracing, they
should ask for the disclosures to be amended to become more specific and
meaningful. Once the disclosure statement has been accepted, however, the
acquirer cannot make any claims for breaches which have been revealed.
I am categorically not suggesting that you break any employment laws which
require disclosure, but the reality is that the purchaser has no legal obligation
to complete the transaction, and deals are aborted up to the last minute and
some for totally unpredictable reasons. For example, a profit warning by a small
listed company which, rightly or wrongly, results in the board deciding not to
complete a sizeable acquisition.
Staff are powerless to influence whether the deal will legally complete, but if
an announcement has been made lasting damage will have been done. A recent
real life example illustrates this. A private company was to be acquired by a FTSE
250 company, and two weeks prior to legal completion the vendor was
persuaded to announce the deal internally with the acquirer “so that we achieve
a flying start at legal completion”. Only two working days before legal comple-
tion, the acquirer aborted the deal because a more attractive and much larger
opportunity had become available.
Preparation is needed so that meetings can be held to announce the deal and,
most importantly, to answer questions just as soon as possible after legal comple-
tion. When overseas locations are involved, special efforts must be made to ensure
simultaneous announcement, because nothing is worse than people finding out
from the company grapevine.
Chapter 12
Think and plan your life after exit
Who are you happy to know that you have
suddenly become rich (or even richer)?............................................99
• Who are you happy to know that you have suddenly become rich?
Remember the old saying, something along these lines; wealth doesn’t ensure
happiness but at least you can be miserable in luxury. Quite a few jackpot winners
on the lotto have found it was true in their case, so make sure it doesn’t happen
to you.
Keep the deal value out of the local papers, regional and trade press. The best
way to achieve this is to make it absolutely clear to your colleagues that you
would be horrified if details of the deal were leaked. One vendor sold his company
for £42 million and was keen to avoid revealing the price. He never imagined
that one director who had been given share options, which gave him a capital
gain of £1.1 million, would give an interview to the local small town newspaper
headlined, Family Firm’s Apprentice becomes Millionaire. It was patently obvious
to everyone that the founder, who lived locally, must have received in the region
of £40 million. Sadly, the vendor never imagined it could possibly end up in the
local newspaper, so he only gagged the acquirer and the professional advisers
to both sides.
Some neighbours, friends and even relatives may react differently to you when
they find out you have suddenly received a large sum of money, even though
you may have worked tirelessly for 20 years or more and made various sacri-
fices to earn it. Burglars may target your house as well. Local newspapers can
be a useful research tool for a professional burglar.
I regularly tell vendors that they will probably work harder during the earn-
out than they ever imagined, because it is not unusual for someone to have the
opportunity to earn more than £1 million, net of capital gains tax, during a two
year earn-out in addition to their executive salary.
If you are selling to an MBO or MBI team, the odds are that you will be expected
to leave soon after completion; even if you are to retain a significant investment
to help finance the deal. Your role will be restricted to a usual non-executive
role.
If you retire from the world of work, you risk quickly becoming out of touch.
When you meet former colleagues, customers and suppliers for a social lunch,
it will suddenly become somewhat different for them and something of a duty.
There is nothing worse than someone reminiscing about ‘how things were in
my day’, when technology and market place changes makes it sound like a bygone
era, within only two or three years.
So, the first things you need to explore are the various opportunities open to
you, which include:
• Start another business. Start-ups are risky, and your successful exit
has not equipped you to walk on water. I have seen quite a few people
lose a lot of money by launching a restaurant or buying a luxury yacht
as a rental opportunity. These are specialist businesses and you have
to be satisfied that the team you assemble has the market knowledge,
technical skill and creative ability to succeed. A safer bet is likely to
be a quite different business from your previous one so that you do
not contravene restrictive covenants, but in the same market sector
so that you have transferable skills and experience.
• Make the golf club or bridge club your second home. It may sound
like a great idea but after a short while the attraction may diminish
rapidly.
One woman found that her husband expected her to provide a cooked lunch,
served with wine, on three or four working days a week. She was horrified, and
rightly so. They were happily married but she regarded his presence during the
day as an unacceptable intrusion into her life. Fortunately, dialogue and common-
sense prevailed. Lunch together became an occasional and strictly optional extra.
A vivacious female entrepreneur achieved an exit from her business at the age
of 41 and decided to take a lengthy break from the world of work to enjoy her
growing family. Fine, but her husband was the problem. She told me that he
was a 45 year old and keen to give up his executive job with a large company
because he was anxious that she would end up having an affair. My only comment
is that giving up a career seems an extreme and bizarre response in these circum-
stances.
My message is simply to listen attentively to your spouse and to ensure that the
changes in your life will be mutually acceptable.
• Staying put – boring perhaps, but this is a safe bet. You could always
revamp or extend your present home but the real bonus is you, your
spouse and children do not have to face the social disruption caused
by moving away from family, friends, sports clubs and such like.
• Moving overseas to eliminate capital gains tax – is the gain really worth
the pain?
At the time of writing most entrepreneurs should only have to pay capital gains
tax of 10%. To eliminate the tax liability, expert advice is needed long before the
sale process is commenced. Capital gains tax regime changes are often made
as part of the Chancellor’s annual budget, but issues which need to be clarified
include:
The keys are expert advice, together with meticulous attention to detail, timing
and documentation.
• Move overseas simply to enjoy life in the sun – will the reality live up
to the dream?
An entrepreneur had enjoyed flying out to the Costa del Sol region of Spain to
enjoy golfing weekends with other friends and he decided to live there. Unfor-
tunately, his friends were only able to join him for occasional weekends. He found
company in some hard drinking expatriates and returned to the UK within five
years disillusioned, bored and an alcoholic; but at least he was able to transfer
his membership of Alcoholics Anonymous to the UK.
The keys to the right decision are achieving a family consensus and finding out
what the reality of the dream will be like for you before you decide to make
changes.
Most people find that for peace of mind their annual income should cover their
outgoings without dipping into capital, and ideally this means preserving the
value of your capital despite inflation. So the core of your annual income should
be assessed in terms of:
If your goal is to preserve the value of your capital, despite inflation, you must
recognize that typical interest rates earned on deposit accounts just about offset
the impact of inflation after allowing for higher rate income tax.
To outperform inflation, net of relevant taxes, you will need to invest in a variety
of less certain investments, in addition to cash deposits, which could include:
• UK equities;
• overseas equities;
• private equity;
• hedge funds;
Even if you are determined to invest and manage your wealth, I urge you to
visit, say, three blue chip private client asset managers. Various major invest-
ment banks have dedicated teams managing wealth for individuals. They will
provide you, free of charge, with a recommended investment allocation model,
the anticipated annual income and assess the risk factors for each asset class.
I promise you that you will learn a lot and avoid making costly investment mistakes
at the outset. For example, they will be able to illustrate the capital gain profile,
expected annual income and risk profile of a collective commercial property
scheme, possibly available only to their private clients, compared with the risk
of buying an individual office, retail or warehouse development yourself.
There are various opportunities to legitimately reduce your income tax, under
current rules, including:
• Gifts made at least seven years prior to your death escape inheritance
tax, and the liability is reduced on an increasing sliding scale after three
years. You must prove, however, that you do not have any retention
of benefit from the gift.
• You and your spouse can make modest annual gifts up to a £3,000 annual
exemption each.
• Gifts made on a regular basis out of surplus income which do not reduce
your standard of living are IHT free.
The sobering reality is that the deal may make you a multi-millionaire, but only
systematic planning and positive action on your part will ensure happiness for
you and your spouse!
Expert advice and techniques for the identification Failure to operate within UK and EU competition rules
and successful exploitation of key opportunities. can lead to heavy fines of up to 10 per cent of a business’s
total UK turnover.
This report will show you:
• how to identify and secure profitable opportunities
• strategies and techniques for negotiating the best Insights into successfully managing the
agreement in-house legal function
• the techniques of successfully managing a license BARRY O’MEARA £65.00
operation.
1 85418 174 2 • 2000
The Report will: For full details of any title, and to view sample
extracts please visit: www.thorogood.ws
• Improve your commercial awareness and planning
skills You can place an order in four ways:
• Enhance your legal foresight and vision 1 Email: orders@thorogood.ws
• Help you appreciate the relevance of rules and 2 Telephone: +44 (0)20 7749 4748
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• Ensure you achieve your or your client’s commercial 4 Post: Thorogood, 10-12 Rivington Street,
objectives London EC2A 3DU, UK
Inventions can be patented, knowledge can be What are the chances of either you or your employees
protected, but what of information itself? breaking the law?
This valuable report examines the current EU [and so The report explains clearly:
EEA] law on the legal protection of databases, including • How to establish a sensible policy and whether or
the sui generis right established when the European not you are entitled to insist on it as binding
Union adopted its Directive 96/9/EC in 1996.
• The degree to which you may lawfully monitor your
employees’ e-mail and Internet use
Litigation costs • The implications of the Regulation of Investigatory
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1 85418 241 2 • 2001
• How the Data Protection Act 1998 affects the degree
The rules and regulations are complex – but can be to which you can monitor your staff
turned to advantage.
• What you need to watch for in the Human Rights Act
The astute practitioner will understand the importance 1998
and relevance of costs to the litigation process and will • TUC guidelines
wish to learn how to turn the large number of rules to
• Example of an e-mail and Internet policy document.
maximum advantage.
S e e f u l l d e t a i l s o f a l l T h o r o g o o d t i t l e s o n w w w. t h o r o g o o d . w s
HR AND EMPLOYMENT LAW
Employee sickness and fitness for work – How to turn your HR strategy into reality
successfully dealing with the legal system TONY GRUNDY £129.00
GILLIAN HOWARD £95.00
1 85418 183 1 • 1999
1 85418 281 1 • 2002 A practical guide to developing and implementing an
Many executives see Employment Law as an obstacle effective HR strategy.
course or, even worse, an opponent – but it can contribute
positively to keeping employees fit and productive.
Internal communications
This specially commissioned report will show you how
JAMES FARRANT £125
to get the best out of your employees, from recruitment
to retirement, while protecting yourself and your firm 1 85418 149 1 • July 2003
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How to improve your organisation’s internal commu-
nications – and performance as a result.
Data protection law for employers There is growing evidence that the organisations that ‘get
SUSAN SINGLETON £125 it right’ reap dividends in corporate energy and enhanced
performance.
1 85418 283 8 • May 2003
The consequences of getting it wrong, for both employer You can place an order in four ways:
and employee, will be considerable – financial and 1 Email: orders@thorogood.ws
otherwise. The Act affects nearly every aspect of the work 2 Telephone: +44 (0)20 7749 4748
place, including:
3 Fax: +44 (0)20 7729 6110
• flexible working
4 Post: Thorogood, 10-12 Rivington Street,
• family rights (adoption, paternity and improved London EC2A 3DU, UK
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SALES, MARKETING AND PR
Just what is meant by marketing communications, or This specially commissioned report aims to draw out the
‘marcom’? How does it fit in with other corporate main principles, processes and procedures involved in
functions, and in particular how does it relate to business tendering and negotiating MoD contracts.
and marketing objectives?
CHRIS GENASI £75.00 Understand how the EU works and how to get your
message across effectively to the right people.
1 85418 192 0 • 1999
Lobbying is an art form rather than a science, so there ENRON, WORLDCOM… who next?
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At a time when trust in corporations has plumbed new
This expert report explains the knowledge and techniques
depths, knowing how to manage corporate reputation
required.
professionally and effectively has never been more crucial.
Tips and techniques to aid you in a new approach 1 85418 208 0 • April 2003
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Strategic planning is a fresh approach to PR. An approach corporate crisis go out of business within 18 months.
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that, should a crisis occur, damage of every kind is limited
as far as possible.
FINANCE
Tax aspects of buying and selling Practical techniques for effective project
companies investment appraisal
MARTYN INGLES £99.00 RALPH TIFFIN £99.00
This report takes you through the buying and selling How to ensure you have a reliable system in place.
process from the tax angle. It uses straightforward case
Spending money on projects automatically necessitates
studies to highlight the issues and more important
an effective appraisal system – a way of deciding whether
strategies that are likely to have a significant impact on
the correct decisions on investment have been made.
the taxation position.
S e e f u l l d e t a i l s o f a l l T h o r o g o o d t i t l e s o n w w w. t h o r o g o o d . w s
MANAGEMENT AND PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
The gap
Far too few managers know how to apply project
management techniques to their strategic planning. The
result is often strategy that is poorly thought out and
executed.
The answer
Strategic project management is a new and powerful
process designed to manage complex projects by
combining traditional business analysis with project
management techniques.