Company sale preparation: Understanding the legal process
When you sell a company, receiving the correct legal advice is absolutely essential.
There are various legal considerations you are obliged to fulfil. Having someone alongside you who is not only familiar with the process, but a proven expert, is a big advantage in making sure all the right boxes are ticked. It also gives you peace of mind that everything is being done properly.
The first step to take is to enlist the services of an experienced company sales adviser who will oversee every aspect of the transaction, which means you can spend your own valuable time ensuring your business is performing to maximum effect.
The company sales adviser will have a connection to a law firm which is fully versed in corporate transactions. At KBS, we do not rely on a solitary individual solicitor or law firm.
We have been successfully selling companies since 1998 and we have built up a carefully selected panel of trusted law firms that we partner with, safe in the knowledge that they will provide the highest level of service throughout the process.
Our legal partners are experienced in all types of company sales, including those in which buyers from overseas are negotiated with.
What will a solicitor do in a business sale process?
Besides taking ownership of any legal complications that arise during the sale of a company, and providing solutions for those, the solicitor will also anticipate any potential issues and get ahead of them so that they do not cause any unnecessary delays or wrangles with the buyer.
They will also have specific responsibilities, such as ensuring confidentiality is maintained, due diligence is carried out with the required discretion, and that the legal documents containing details of the sale agreement are comprehensive and completely accurate.
The solicitor will ascertain that the sale agreement not only explains the structure of the transaction but also makes sure that details such as any intellectual property rights, trademarks and copyrights are included, and that employee contracts are safeguarded.
The cost of hiring a solicitor
You may be thinking that having a solicitor on hand throughout the sale of your company is likely to be very expensive.
But this is a great example of why working with an adviser such as KBS Corporate is such a good idea – because we offer our clients an integrated solution, with the opportunity of all-inclusive legal fees.
What this means is that if you choose one of our partner law firms as your legal representative, we can include the costs within the overall transaction fee – which will be entirely transparent and outlined at the beginning of the process.
Also, those legal fees will be contingent on a successful sale of your company, to protect you once the transaction reaches the legal stage. That means you will not be liable for any fees should the deal break down through no fault of your own.
Once the transaction has completed, the fees payable to KBS will not deviate from the transaction fee set out at the beginning – which means there will not be any unwelcome surprises.
To find out more about how we can help with the sale of your company, contact us today.