Advice for owners ready to sell, in part or in full, and for companies looking to buy, from preparation through to the closing table.
A company is usually sold once in an owner’s working life, and the outcome decides their own security and the prospects of everyone on the payroll. That is too important to leave to a single buyer’s first offer or to a process run in a hurry.
We begin by learning what you want from the sale, whether that is the highest price, a particular kind of buyer, a role for yourself afterward, or security for your team. Those goals guide everything we do on your behalf.
Then comes the groundwork. Orderly accounts, a convincing story about the business, and a hand-picked list of bidders are what turn curiosity into rival offers, and rival offers into better terms.
For acquirers, the method runs in reverse: a defined strategy, a researched list of candidates, quiet first approaches, and terms that still look sensible a year after signing.
The owners and acquirers we most often represent.
You started the business, grew it, and now want to sell it to the right buyer at the right price.
Ownership is shared among relatives, and you need a sale or transfer that treats everyone fairly.
Buying businesses is how you plan to grow, and you want a partner to find the right one and land it.
The work we do for sellers and buyers, with a senior banker in charge of each assignment.
An organized auction for the whole business. We ready the company for scrutiny, line up trade and private equity bidders with a real motive to buy, run every conversation, and keep negotiating until the deal closes, so no figure is accepted without something to compare it with.
Suited to: proprietors who are ready to hand over the keys.
A financial partner purchases a portion of the shares and you hold on to the remainder. Some of your wealth becomes cash today, the stake you keep rides the next stage of growth, and in most cases you remain in charge.
Suited to: founders who want money in the bank without leaving the business.
Together we decide what a good acquisition looks like for you, research the field, make the first approach to owners in confidence, and then carry the valuation and the bargaining.
Suited to: companies and sponsors adding businesses to their own.
The leadership team becomes the ownership team, funded by a lender, a note from you as seller, and sometimes an outside backer. We help both sides settle on a figure and a debt load the company can comfortably carry.
Suited to: owners who would like the colleagues who built the business beside them to inherit it.
Handing the business to children or relatives, with an independent valuation, a realistic way to pay for it, and written agreements that keep family dinners peaceful and the company steady.
Suited to: family firms with the next generation ready to step up.
Parting with one division or product line in an orderly way. Staff, systems, and shared contracts are untangled in advance, so the buyer receives a clean unit and the rest of your business barely notices.
Suited to: groups simplifying around what they do best.
From engagement to closing, most sales run between six and nine months. Each stage is listed with its usual length and the help we will need from you.
Your accounts, customer list, contracts, people, and market all get a careful read. You then hear our frank opinion of value and of the awkward questions a buyer is likely to ask.
From you: several meetings and the last few years of figures.
Our team assembles the valuation model, drafts the offering memorandum, builds an online document room, and settles with you which buyers hear first.
From you: help locating papers and feedback on each draft.
Interested parties begin with a profile that leaves your name out. After signing a non-disclosure agreement they receive the full picture, visit with your management, and submit opening offers.
From you: a handful of buyer meetings, each practiced in advance.
Offers are lined up next to each other, the front-runners are pressed for better terms, and the main points are written into a letter of intent.
From you: your call on the questions you care about most.
While the purchaser completes its review, we keep the flow of requests steady, work alongside your own advisers, and hold the calendar firm until signing and funding.
From you: quick replies, and steady trading while the sale completes.
What you can count on throughout.
The banker who meets you first leads your sale from start to finish.
Should a year of groundwork earn you more, you will hear that from us first.
Frequent updates on buyer interest and on next steps.
The larger part of what you pay us is due only at closing.
That rests on profits, growth, the spread of customers, the quality of management, and how much a particular buyer could gain by owning it. Early on we share a range and explain which levers would lift it.
A year or two before you hope to sell is ideal. It leaves room to put the books in order, lessen reliance on a handful of customers or on yourself, and pick a good moment in the market.
Only when you choose to tell them. Buyers sign a non-disclosure agreement before they learn who you are, and together we decide the timing and wording of any announcement.
Rivals and businesses in neighboring fields, buyout funds, and family investment offices. Each prices a company through a different lens, so we generally approach more than one kind.
No. Selling a portion lets you take money out, keep a meaningful stake, and frequently stay at the helm.
Most buyers ask for a handover period, and its length is agreed before you sign. Owners who keep shares often stay on considerably longer by choice.
It is the buyer’s close inspection of your accounts, contracts, operations, and legal affairs before the money changes hands. Thorough preparation shortens it and limits surprises.
There is a small monthly fee while we prepare, and the main fee is due at closing, based on what the sale achieves. The arrangement is signed off before any work starts.
Send a short note on the company and the step you have in mind. One of our senior bankers will answer you directly, and your note stays strictly between us.
info@pemberton-row.com