It has become clear that the worldwide economy is closely interlinked with our own and, therefore, events taking place around the globe can cause ripples which cause our own economy significant shock. Now, having been rocked by the coronavirus pandemic, there is continuing and further instability yet to come. As a result, there is likely to be a chain reaction of transactional arrangements where companies are re-structuring, either through necessity or potentially also triggering opportunistic acquisitions of smaller entities.
Some entities will be looking to use the current circumstances as an opportunity to negotiate a ‘bargain’ and whilst people’s minds at the moment are dealing with a wide variety of challenging issues, it is fundamentally important to ensure that, if you are open minded to an acquisition or merger, any business is ready for such an attempt, should it occur. If a business is prepared for such an eventuality then it is not only likely to have greater appeal, it is also likely to receive a higher value than a business in a state of disarray (or at least not suffer from as many last minute price reductions).
There are a number of measures that can be taken to best prepare business for an external restructuring and these measures are largely compliance related but can also include certain commercial and legal considerations as has been set out below: –
The process of selling a business can often be a long and arduous process (whether that be now, or at more ‘normal’ times) that can be carried out much more effectively by simply considering at least some of the above issues in advance.
For an initial discussion or for further advice, please get in touch with Wards’ Head of Corporate Commercial, Marina Maclennan at marina.maclennan@wards.uk.com, or Solicitor Ciaran Keane at ciaran.keane@wards.uk.com.