SUCCESSFULLY NEGOTIATING THE DEALS MAZE
The route to a successful deal is littered with potential hazards. Our panel of experts and business leaders gave their advice on how to navigate the journey
Ryan Bilsborough, corporate finance manager at Blackburn based accountants and business advisors PM+M
What we try to do is align expectations as we’re progressing through the transaction, try and highlight the potential pitfalls and the circumstances buyers might come across, particularly towards the later stages of the transaction.
So, at that point in time when deal fatigue has set in, the seller is tired, he’s had enough of his due diligence process, he wants his cash, he wants to get out and the buyer wants to progress forward, it’s recognising that at the end of the transaction you guys have got to work together.
It’s just taking that step back, letting it simmer down a bit and considering what it’s like afterwards.
Khalid Saifullah, managing director WEPA Professional UK
If you are a family concern and you’ve created your own business, there’s an element of giving up a bit of control during the deal process. It is a completely alien process.
You have to realise that you have to give up that control to the people who best know how to do this. As you get more into the process you recognise the value they’re providing and what you are paying them for. If you’ve been advised correctly and you’re
honest and you’re working with them, then the outcome usually is what you expect it to be. But it is difficult for an owner to realise that.
I learnt that sometimes you just have to follow and let others take the lead. We were fortunate with the team of people we had but there were many times when things were put forward to me and it didn’t make sense.
If you build a good business, then you’ll get people knocking on your door. If you think you’re getting the right offers, then start getting your business ready. That’s a whole process in itself.
Paul Fox, chief executive of Fox Group
When there are contentious points during the process you need to take the emotion out of it. In the past it has been a case of just picking up the phone and talking to the lead person on the other side and then you both telling the solicitors to move on. This is no criticism of solicitors; you have to protect your clients at all costs.
People spending time in rooms together, where you get the culture, is missing a bit. That lead up of speaking to the other side actually sets the tone for the future. If your solicitors have been knocking lumps out of each other for the past six months and now you have got to work together, it doesn’t set the right mindset.
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IN VIEW
DOING THE DEAL
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