The Acquisitions Process
Interested in one of our Confidential Business Sales?
Follow Acquire’s 10 Step Guide to a professional Acquisition.
Whether you are an experienced Company Acquirer or looking to make an acquisition for the first time, these are the process steps we take to guide you to a successful acquisition.
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Make an Enquiry
If you have found an opportunity on our Businesses For Sale pages and would like further information we invite you to register your interest by making an on-line enquiry.
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Complete the NDA
Upon receipt of your enquiry we will email you our NDA (non-disclosure agreement) for completion. This document must be completed in full and must be physically signed as we do not accept electronic signatures on our NDA. If you are representing a Business we ask that the NDA is signed by a shareholder of the acquisitive company. You can return your completed NDA in a scanned format on email or by post to our offices.
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Qualification & Vendor Approval
Once in receipt of your signed NDA your enquiry will be fully qualified by a member of our team before being passed to our Client for vendor approval. Depending on the information you provide we may need to contact you to ask further questions about your profile and acquisition strategy. It is only with the authority of our Client that we will be able to provide you with further information on your chosen acquisition opportunity.
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Disclosure of Confidential Information
With vendor approval we will email you confidential information on the chosen opportunity in the form of our Sales Documentation. The document will provide you with an overview of all the Key Features including the Company Financials. We encourage you to contact us if you have further questions following review of the confidential information. Under no circumstances must you make direct contact with our Client unless explicitly approved by Acquire with vendor consent.
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Meeting Stage
If the opportunity is of serious interest following review of the confidential information, we may propose a meeting between buyer and seller. Acquire will arrange the meeting and confirm a time and location with both parties. For reasons of confidentiality it is fairly common for most first meetings to take place away from the business premises of the target acquisition. To ensure your meeting is as productive as possible, we ask that ‘Buy-Side’ attendees prepare an agenda of questions to be shared with the seller team in advance.
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Acquirer Feedback
We will contact you for feedback once the meeting has taken place in order to answer any further questions you might have on the Business, or to receive and put forward your proposals to Acquire. If you no longer wish to pursue the opportunity at this stage, we would ask that appropriate feedback is supplied for us to pass on to our Client.
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Make An Offer
If you are ready to make a formal offer, we insist that your acquisition proposals are submitted to us in writing before being passed to our Client for consideration. We are however, happy to provide opinion on your offer proposals prior to submission to ensure that your time is not wasted. We will endeavour to provide you with a swift confirmation of our clients thoughts on your proposal, whether that be acceptance or a willingness to negotiate.
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Heads Of Terms
If, in principal your acquisition proposal is acceptable, then the next step is for you to prepare a formal Heads of Terms Agreement (HOTs) to purchase. We would advise that a suitably experienced commercial or corporate lawyer is employed at this stage to draft the HOTs on your behalf. The draft HOTs must be sent directly to Acquire in the first instance before being circulated by us to the sell-side team.
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The Exclusivity Period
If the HOTs are acceptable to both buyer and seller, a period of exclusivity can be granted and a completion date must be agreed. You must use the exclusivity period to conduct advised Due Diligence on the Business whilst ensuring the required funds to complete the acquisition are put into place. A share purchase agreement (SPA) or purchase agreement must also be prepared for the attention of the sellers legal team, which accurately builds on the basic terms set out in the HOTs.
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Completion
If you are satisfied with the findings of due diligence and the terms of the SPA / purchase agreement are acceptable to both parties, then the respective buyer and seller lawyers can make arrangements for completion to take place.
THINKING ABOUT SELLING YOUR COMPANY?
Contact us in the strictest of confidence about your Company Sale on 0844 8225656 or submit a confidential online enquiry.