Business Valuations
A defensible number for a sale, a share transfer, a divorce, a share scheme or simply to know where you stand, plus the levers that would move it.
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Corporate finance
Corporate Finance in Liverpool
Once or twice in the life of a business, the numbers stop being about compliance and start being about the rest of your life. Selling up. Buying a competitor. Bringing your management team in. Passing it to your children. This is the work we do around those moments.
What corporate finance actually means
It is an intimidating phrase for something quite practical: the tax and accounting work that comes with a change in the ownership or shape of your business. Most owners meet it two or three times in a working life, and the other side of the table usually arrives with specialist advisers who negotiate deals for a living.
Our job is to make sure your numbers are just as well prepared as theirs. Not by broking the deal, but by knowing your business inside out, putting a defensible value on it, and telling you what a given structure costs you in tax before you agree to it.
Where the money is actually won
In our experience it is rarely in the headline price. It is in:
- Timing. Reliefs have qualifying clocks. Business Asset Disposal Relief is 18% against a main capital gains rate of 24%, but only if you have satisfied the conditions throughout the two years to the sale.
- Structure. A share sale and an asset sale can leave you with materially different amounts of money for the same headline figure.
- Preparation. Clean records, a balance sheet without personal clutter, and a business that does not stop when you go on holiday. Each of those raises what a buyer will pay and lowers what they will hold back.
- What gets deferred. Earn-outs and loan notes are where deals go quietly wrong. Tax can fall due on money you have not yet received, and an earn-out that looks like payment for staying on can be taxed as employment income rather than a capital gain.
How we work on this
Senior only. The people doing this work are the same people who sign off your accounts, which means nobody has to be brought up to speed on your business at your expense.
We are also straight about scope. Valuation, tax structuring, modelling, financial due diligence, preparing the business, and working alongside your solicitor: that is us. Advising you on whether to accept an offer, marketing the business or approaching buyers is not, and it needs a firm licensed for that work. We will tell you when you have reached that point.
Start with a conversation. It is confidential, there is no charge for it, and even if the answer is "not yet", you will leave knowing what to do between now and then.
Where we help
The moments that need more than a set of accounts
Selling Your Business
The tax structuring, preparation and deal support behind a sale, so the amount that reaches your bank account is as close as possible to the number you agreed.
Learn more →Exit & Succession Planning
The two to five years before you leave, used properly: reliefs protected, the business made saleable, and a plan for who takes it on.
Learn more →Buying a Business
Financial due diligence, affordability modelling and deal structuring, so you find out what you are actually buying before you sign.
Learn more →Management Buyouts
Selling to the people who already run it: structuring a deal the management team can afford and the outgoing owner is happy to accept.
Learn more →Raising Finance
Forecasts, business plans and lender packs that stand up to scrutiny, plus a clear-eyed view of what your business can actually afford to borrow.
Learn more →Common questions
When should I start talking to you about selling?
Two to five years before you want to go. The reliefs that matter most have qualifying periods: Business Asset Disposal Relief needs you to have met the conditions throughout the two years to disposal, so a share reorganisation done at the wrong moment can restart the clock and cost you real money. Early conversations also give you time to improve the number rather than simply accept it.
How much is my business worth?
It depends on the profits a buyer can rely on, the sector, how dependent the business is on you, and what similar businesses have actually sold for. We give you a defensible range and, more usefully, tell you which levers move it. The earlier you ask, the more time you have to pull them.
Do you run the sale process and find me a buyer?
No. We are not business brokers and we do not market businesses or approach buyers. Our work is the tax and the numbers around a transaction: valuing the business, calculating what different structures would cost you in tax, preparing the figures a buyer will interrogate, and working alongside your solicitor. Finding a buyer and negotiating the deal is a job for a business broker or a licensed corporate finance house, and we will happily work alongside one.
Is it cheaper to sell shares or assets?
Usually very different, and usually the seller prefers a share sale. Selling shares gives you one capital gain with the chance of BADR. Selling the trade and assets taxes the company first, then taxes you again when you take the money out. Buyers often want the opposite, which is why this is negotiated early, not left to the lawyers at the end.
What does it cost?
Advisory work is quoted per engagement, not on a monthly fee, because no two deals look alike. We scope it up front so you know the cost before you commit. A valuation or an exit planning review is a fixed price. Deal support is agreed in stages so you can stop at any point.
What this service is. Tax and accounting work connected with
a transaction: valuations, tax computations and structuring, financial
modelling, due diligence reporting, preparing your records and figures, and
working alongside your solicitor and other advisers. Tax treatment depends on
your circumstances and can change.
What it is not. We do not advise on the merits of buying or
selling shares or other investments, and we do not arrange or broker
investments or finance. Where you need that, we will tell you and you should
take advice from a firm authorised or licensed to give it.