A professional contact introduced us to a proprietor of a very long established business. The proprietor had been approached by a broker who said he had a buyer for his business and wanted to meet up. The proprietor soon realised the broker did not have a specific prospective purchaser and was in fact fishing for opportunities. However, it got the proprietor thinking about selling up.
Following our introduction and discussions, it was evident that the proprietor wanted to sell the business because he had a number of problems eating away at him. The main problem was that the bank was not willing to provide additional funding unless he gave more security through personal guarantees. He was of an age where he did not want to do this as he didn’t know how long he could run the business. When we assessed the state of the company we could see that the core business was profitable and turnover was growing but it was seriously underfunded to the point that there was always pressure from HMRC and larger suppliers. We set about solving this problem using our network of contacts. Within a very short timescale the company had an offer of finance for an additional £400,000. HMRC and key suppliers were brought up to date and the company’s liquidity was no longer a problem.
We then assisted in dealing with numerous other issues we became aware of which resulted in the company immediately saving over £26,000. The company’s accountants and solicitors were included in an action plan to help with other issues which will benefit in even more savings.
As regards the value of the business, we saw numerous problems which would pull the value down if he put it on the market immediately. There were numerous issues that would create major hurdles for any prospective purchasers to buy the business. All the issues could be rectified given time so we agreed a strategy for the next year or two.
The business will be “sale ready” shortly and we have been told we will be dealing with the sale.
The professional firms involved in success stories like this are local and know our capabilities. This is how our reputation spreads!
