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Buying or Selling a Business

Buying or selling a business is a big step and ensuring every aspect of the complex legal side is carried out by exacting lawyers who make it as stress free as possible is key.

Our expert and specialist Corporate Team will work carefully and closely with you to ensure this happens and to deliver the best possible outcome.

  • If you’re selling, we’ll help you achieve the right exit-strategy and reduce any contractual risk by managing the disclosure process, drawing up and reviewing the sales agreement and minimising post completion risks.
  • If you’re buying, we’ll highlight any potential risks and debts of an acquisition through our due diligence checks, tailored to your needs and the size of the transaction, and make sure there are strong contractual protections in place.

What we do

We advise on a wide range of business sales and acquisitions, disposals of companies and businesses, share and asset sales and purchases as well as joint venture agreements/funding arrangements.

We’ll talk through your options with you, jargon free, to decide on the best way forward for your individual circumstances.

Get in touch

Contact Partner, Marina MacLennan, head of our Corporate and Commercial team, for more information.

FAQs

A: Selling a business is complex. We ensure the sale is legally valid, successful and safe for both seller and buyer. This includes drafting and reviewing the relevant documents, ensuring all the relevant information is declared to the buyer (due diligence), managing any legal risks (like potential liabilities), negotiating the terms of the sale, transferring ownership and dealing with any post completion formalities and registrations.

A: A specialist solicitor can ensure at the earliest possible stage that there aren’t any skeletons in the cupboard. This includes checking there are no shareholder disputes and that the records of the business you want to buy are in order. We also scrutinise its commercial contracts and employment contracts as well as investigating whether there are issues requiring further negotiation like unfavourable lease terms before you sign on the dotted line.