United Kingdom · Process
Ten stages, and you control disclosure at every one.
A managed confidential sale process for qualifying UK businesses. Nothing identifying your business is released without your agreement.
- 01
Initial business qualification
A confidential conversation about the business, the reason for the sale and your timescale. We look at trading performance, revenue quality, owner dependence and the realistic buyer universe. This is where we decide together whether an off-market process is the right route — and where we tell you if it is not.
What we need from you
Last 2 year full accounts plus latest management accounts and a candid account of the position.
- 02
Preparation of the confidential business profile
We prepare a description of the business that is accurate but not identifying: sector, model, scale of operation, reason for sale. No company name, no location detail, no customer names. Financial information is prepared separately for staged release.
What we need from you
Review and approval of everything before it leaves us.
- 03
Identification of appropriate buyers
We build a target list of acquirers with strategic reason to want this specific business — trade buyers in adjacent geographies, groups acquiring capability, buyers with distribution you lack. You see the list and can exclude anyone: competitors, customers, anyone you would rather we did not approach.
What we need from you
Your exclusions. This is your veto, and it is absolute.
- 04
Confidential buyer approaches
Approaches are made individually and confidentially, using the confidential business profile. No advertisement is placed and no listing is created. Buyers learn that an opportunity exists in a sector, not that your company is for sale.
What we need from you
Nothing. This stage is ours.
- 05
Buyer qualification
Interested parties are tested before they receive anything further: acquisition rationale, funding, deal experience, ability to complete and timescale. Buyers who cannot evidence these do not progress.
What we need from you
Nothing, other than deciding how tightly to filter.
- 06
NDA-controlled disclosure
Confidentiality terms are agreed before identifying information is released. Disclosure is then progressive — the name and detail of the business, then financial information, in the order you agree.
What we need from you
The decision on what is released, to whom, and when.
- 07
Confidential introductions
Where a buyer qualifies and you want to proceed, we arrange a managed introduction. These conversations tend to be markedly more productive than listing enquiries, because the buyer is there for a strategic reason.
What we need from you
The conversation. We prepare you for it and attend.
- 08
Offer management
Indicative offers are structured on a consistent basis so they can be compared properly — headline price, structure, deferred elements, conditions and timetable. We advise on what each one is actually worth to you.
What we need from you
The decision on which offer to progress.
- 09
Heads of Terms
The agreed shape of the transaction is documented: price, structure, conditions, exclusivity and timetable. A Heads of Terms payment becomes due at this point, credited against the final Offsell fee.
What we need from you
Signature, and maybe your solicitor's input.
- 10
Transaction support through completion
Through due diligence and legal documentation we keep the process moving, manage information flow and hold the timetable. The remaining success fee becomes payable on completion.
What we need from you
Running your business while we run the deal.
Timescales
Off-market processes move at your pace — within reason.
Every business is different, so no two sales run to the same clock. From launch to an acceptable offer normally takes six to eighteen months — finding the right buyers, and the right price, is rarely quick. Once an offer is accepted the path becomes more predictable: typically eight to twelve weeks to completion, driven mostly by diligence and legal work rather than by us. We will give you a realistic view of yours at qualification rather than a standard timetable.
Phase One
Launch to acceptable offer
Preparation of your confidential profile, buyer identification, confidential approaches, buyer qualification, disclosure and offer management. How long this runs depends on the sector and the buyer universe, not on how hard anyone pushes.
Offer to completion
Heads of Terms, due diligence and legal documentation. Once an offer is accepted the work is largely in other hands: your solicitor and the buyer's advisers.
What we will not claim
No sale stays anonymous forever — identity is disclosed by design, once you have approved the buyer, the NDA is signed, and the moment is right.
What we protect is everything before that point: your staff, customers, competitors and market hear nothing until you decide they should.
Confidentiality here is not a promise of invisibility. It is control over who learns what, and when.
Frequently asked
What actually moves the timetable.
The two ranges above are what we normally see, not what any particular sale will do. These are the factors that decide which end of them you land on.
Phase One · what moves the six to eighteen months
How many buyers are there to speak to?
The single most important variable. A sector with active consolidators and well-funded trade buyers can produce a serious conversation quickly. A specialist niche with a handful of credible acquirers takes longer, and a thin buyer universe is a reason to widen the search or revisit the price, not to push harder.
Does the price I have in mind change the timetable?
Almost always. A realistic range shortens the search. A valuation built on hope rather than comparables tends to produce silence, then lowball offers that have to be unwound. That is why expectation is tested at qualification, before anything is launched.
How much do the accounts matter?
They set the pace. Up-to-date management accounts, consistent revenue recognition and visible contract cover let a buyer form a view quickly. Gaps, one-off items and unexplained margins generate questions before an offer has even been made.
What if I need to exclude a lot of buyers?
Your exclusions are absolute and we do not question the motive. But every name you remove is a name we cannot approach, so a long list lengthens the search. If offers are slow, it is worth asking whether the list can be relaxed.
Does it matter how far the business depends on me?
Buyers ask what they are getting if you leave. A business that runs without its owner is easier to price and easier to buy. Heavy owner dependence slows the search and usually the price as well.
What outside the business affects the wait?
Credit availability, interest rates and sector sentiment all shift buyer appetite, as does the annual rhythm of accounts, board meetings and summer holidays. Some of that can be timed; none of it can be controlled.
What decides how long due diligence takes?
Chiefly preparation. Documents that already exist, are current and can be found in one place turn diligence into a fortnight of reading. Assembling them while a buyer waits is what turns eight weeks into sixteen.
Which documents are usually the bottleneck?
Customer and supplier arrangements that are verbal or out of date, leases and licences, the employment position, and anything involving you personally, such as a loan, a property or a guarantee. Untangling these after an offer is accepted is where the weeks go.
Whose pace is it once diligence starts?
Rarely ours alone. The buyer's advisers, their lender and solicitors on both sides each hold part of the timetable, and the busiest of them usually sets it.
Can diligence begin before the offer is accepted?
Often, and it is worth asking for. A buyer prepared to work from the memorandum and financial pack before Heads of Terms spends less of the completion period discovering the business.
What if the buyer's funding is not certain?
Find out early. Diligence running alongside a funding application can stop the clock entirely if a lender changes its mind, which is why funding is tested at buyer qualification rather than at completion.
What is the biggest cause of delay?
Questions left unanswered. Every week a data request sits is a week added to the end of the process, and it is the one thing entirely within a seller's control.
Begin at stage one.
A confidential review is stage one of this process and costs nothing. It is confidential and it commits you to nothing.