Buying A Business – Advisory Services

We help optimise your business purchase. We can help you find sellers and finance (debt or equity). Areas in which we frequently assist include:

Pre-Negotiation Advice

• Identifying your acquisition needs and finding targets.
• Calculating the target value – it may differ from an “accounts-based” value.
• Helping you clarify your thinking and identify synergies and strategic benefits.
• Undertaking due diligence.

Negotiation Advice

We’ll help you negotiate the terms of purchase, from an expression of interest to the final contract, taking into account:

• Warranties
• Guarantees
• Deferred payments
• Deal structure in terms of:
  • Percentage ownerships
  • Timeframes
  • Financial risk
• Financial risk transfer of
  • Debt
  • Your funds
  • Private Equity
  • Sellers funds – upfront and deferred payments.
  • Suppliers
• HR issues
• Operational risks

Financial and Funding Advice

• Creating efficient funding structures to enable funds to be raised more easily.
• Raising capital from debt, Private Equity or hybrid debt/equity instruments.
• Optimising tax structures – for buyers and sellers.
• Restructuring
• Pensions

Post-Acquisition Advice

• Staff retention
• Systems integration
• Creating management incentive plans – including Employers’ Management Incentive (EMI) schemes.
• Increasing post-purchase the value of the acquisition.

Your Helping Hand

As well as providing technical/financial advice, we’ll guide you through your purchase and help you stay focused on your objectives.

Real World Expertise

 We understand business acquisitions. Rather than just advising on them, we’ve made many ourselves. Stuart Thomson, our MD:

• Was previously a Private Equity principal.
• Advised on the PFI of a hospital, the debt restructure of Croydon Tramlink and the National Air Traffic Control System (NATS) privatisation.

Johnsons – Chartered Accountants

• We’re a growing, full-service, mid-sized firm of Chartered Accountants – and are small enough to care.
• We’ve currently (November 2024) the resources and expertise to address your corporate finance requirements.

Next Step

Contact us to learn how we can help reduce your business purchase risks – and negotiate a better deal. You’ll be pleased you did.