Business Exit Planning

At Symes Bains Broomer, our commercial team can advise you of your options and explore various business exit routes to suit your aims, helping you structure the perfect plan. We can review your plans, focusing on the most important commercial aspects that will enable you to optimize your position.

We can help you with a range of key exit strategies, including:

• Selling your company
• Passing your company on to a family member
• Negotiating a management takeover
• Closing your business

As a full-service firm, you can benefit from the extensive knowledge and experience of our entire Commercial team, including related expertise in the areas of tax, inheritance planning, property conveyancing, and employment law.

At Symes Bains Broomer, we can advise and support you throughout the business exit process. We have local teams in Scunthorpe and Goole and work with clients across Lincolnshire and Yorkshire.

If you would like to have an initial no-obligation conversation, please call us on 01724 281 616.

Selling your business could be a good exit route to take if you want to:

• Realize some, or all, of the value in the business
• Retire
• Invest in a new venture

You will need to decide whether you will be selling the shares in the company or the trade and assets before finding the right buyer. Your accountant will be able to assist with maximizing and showcasing the business’ value in readiness for sale. Competitors or related businesses could be good potential buyers.

If you decide to sell your business, we can help you with all the necessary due diligence, contractual negotiations, and a robust sale purchase agreement (SPA) for a smooth and successful transaction.

Passing your company onto the next generation of family is one way to deal with the issues of succession and the process of transitioning management and ownership of the business for the future.

There are several important considerations to make when passing a business onto family members, which will include various legal, tax, and family issues.

If you want to extract value from your business by passing it on to family, we can help with the transfer of assets, which can be a complex process, advising and supporting you throughout.

Management takeovers can be a quick and efficient business exit, especially where a team has a good knowledge of the business.

A management team can buy your business in the following three ways:

• Management buy-out (MBO) - where the existing management team buys the business.
• Management buy-in (MBI) – a new external management team takes over
• Buy-in management buy-out (BIMBO) – an existing team and an external manager buy the business.

If you are considering a management takeover as a possible exit strategy, we recommend you seek independent financial and legal advice at the earliest opportunity since there can be considerable costs from the outset.

If you cannot find a suitable buyer and there is no clear successor in your family or your management team, then you could consider winding down your business.

Voluntary liquidation (MVL) is a possible exit strategy for a solvent business operating at a loss and is unlikely to be profitable again.

This could be a good time to close your business before it becomes insolvent, thereby minimizing any losses and returning any capital to shareholders.