Case Study

Corporate finance – Exiting a business in an efficient manner

15th April 2019 5 min read

Our case study involves one of two shareholders of an established construction firm who wished to retire and realise the value of his shares within the business.

David Nelson, Senior Partner at Smith Cooper, worked alongside the client to understand his retirement aspirations, and formulated specifically tailored solutions to achieve his aims.

As a result, our client was able to exit the business in a timely and tax efficient manner, receiving capital value for his many years of hard work.

Background

Our client was a 50% shareholder in a regional Civil Engineering Contractor.

The complication was that as a 50% shareholder, our client had no automatic right to receive value for his shares in a capital form, and needed to not only bring his fellow shareholder to the table to facilitate his exit, but do so in a way that provided him with an acceptable consideration.

How we helped

David Nelson was appointed to advise on the transaction, working alongside our client to understand his objectives. Throughout the process, David was responsible for:

  • Negotiating with the remaining shareholder’s advisors to achieve an optimal value for our client’s shareholding
  • Formulating and delivering an optimal strategy in an appropriate time frame that suited the clients financial and personal objectives
  • Ensuring that the exit was done in a tax efficient manner for both our client and the Company

The result

The final consideration achieved was over 30% higher than the initial offer.

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