What Company Owners Looking to Sell Need to Know

Selling a company is typically the single most significant financial event in a person’s lifetime.

In the second video in our new "IMAP M&A ACADEMY" series, Karri Vuori, Managing Partner at IMAP UK, explains the process of selling a company, providing a complete breakdown on the key steps involved:

Owner Preparation: Before embarking on a sale process, it’s key to understand your objectives and motivations, are you:

• A founder, family, individual shareholder?
• Looking to transition the business to the next generation, preserve the culture, maximize the price? Or perhaps a combination of the above?
• Looking to sell to Strategics, PE, or your Shareholders?
• Considering an IPO?

All the above must be considered and decisions taken, before moving onto the next step in the process.

Company Preparation: There are lots of key factors to consider:

• Tax implications
• Preparation of financial materials
• Communications with management team
• Ensuring customer relationships are documented/signed contracts are in place
• Vender Due Diligence
• Timing is crucial

Marketing: Here your IMAP M&A advisor helps to Create Value:

• Creating and positioning the company’s equity story – using the right KPIs, positioning, and benchmarking against other companies in your sector.
• Access and relationship to the right audience of buyers – positioning the story specifically to the buyer’s objectives and motivations

Closing. After carefully undertaking the previous steps, here your IMAP advisor Secures the Value:

• Structuring the transaction
• Terms of the transaction
• Closing mechanism

After we’ve helped you to get all of this right, you are set on your way to a really successful transaction.

Karri Vuori

Managing Partner

IMAP UK