Selling Your Business: Read This First!

Whatever the motive, nearly all business owners eventually decide to sell one of their most valuable assets: their business. When they do it’s vital to obtain professional advice to achieve a swift, smooth, and hassle-free transaction without affecting the goodwill of the business. At the same time you will want to maximise the selling price and complete the sale as soon as possible whilst maintaining discretion.

We are here to help you that process and have your best interests at heart from the time you contact us to the moment we sell your business for you.

Through comprehensive regional, national and international marketing we ensure maximum exposure to buyers whilst maintaining the utmost discretion. Our dedicated service will keep you informed throughout the process together with regular updates.

Our Procedure:

Step 1: An appointment is made for one of our friendly experienced consultants to visit you at your business and provide a no obligation, discreet appraisal of your asset.

Step 2: Once you’ve decided to go ahead, our consultant will draft detailed sales particulars for your business, which will contain sufficient information for a buyer without revealing you business name or location. Photographs will also be taken where relevant.

Step 3: Within two weeks you will receive your Vendor Pack containing your own colour brochure, the advertising copy and details of the marketing. While you are on the market with us, we believe that you should know exactly how the sale is going. That’s why you will receive regular updates and never be left in the dark. When you meet one of our consultants you will see in detail everything that we do to ensure that your business is sold quickly and confidentially.

Our Services

If you are paying for our services we think you should expect more than just a go-between for you and the buyer. You will find our consultants knowledgeable about the market, understanding of your ambitions and open-minded about the best way to achieve the right price. They will analyze, and take the time to understand your business, all positives as well as the negatives to weigh up the suitability of a sale.

Services we provide include:

· Business Sales

· Preparing a business for sale

· Sourcing Accountants

· Sourcing Solicitors for buyers & sellers

· Sourcing Finance Providers

Partners

Through our partners we provide a complete one-stop service that saves you money and gives you peace of mind. Importantly all of them are experienced in dealing with business sales. Benefit from our effective working partnerships with leading financial, legal and marketing institutions. They’ll provide you with specialist value-adding services to streamline the selling process at reduced rates without compromising on quality.

How we market your business?

1. Comprehensive Database

We have access to almost 200,000 registered buyers both nationally and internationally. Their details are carefully organised to help us find a match for your business as quickly as possible.

2. Compelling Sales Particulars

Persuasive, informative but always discreet. Our particulars work harder to promote the key aspects of your business and highlight the features that buyers are looking for.

3. The Internet

The web is where most buyers start looking so we make best use of internet. There are over 23,000 visitors a day – each one a potential buyer!

4. Daltons Weekly

The most widely read publication advertising businesses for sale – we regularly appear inside to reach the kind of buyer who likes to do things the traditional way.

5. Daltons Business Magazine

Another popular publication in a glossy magazine format in which we regularly advertise.

6. Networking Groups

We attend regular meetings with accountants, bank managers and financial advisors with clients actively looking to buy a business.

7. Public Relations

We have links with PR companies who are able to control the knowledge of a sale, either to promote it or limit it, ensuring the correct message is provided to the media.

8. High Impact Signage

Available for sellers who are less concerned about confidentiality and want to highlight a business opportunity to local buyers.

9. Bespoke Packages

Tailor-made marketing activities for niche businesses and sector-specific promotions. This can include E-Shots: a highly effective way of reaching buyers on the database who show a promising match while maintaining discretion and respecting confidentiality.

Please call 07748 409 555 for more information.

Lloy’d Banking Group CEO Speaks Out…

Lloyds increases provision for mis-selling payment protection insurance by 12% to £3.6bn as it reports pre-tax profit of £288m

António Horta-Osório, chief executive of Lloyds Banking Group, hit out against fraudulent claims for payment protection insurance compensation. Photograph: Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images

António Horta-Osório, chief executive of Lloyds Banking Group, hit out against fraudulent claims for payment protection insurancecompensation on Tuesday as the bailed out bank increased its provision for mis-selling this controversial product by 12% to £3.6bn.

He described the £375m addition provision for PPI as a “minor adjustment” when asked if it would require the bank to pursue any additional clawback of bonuses from former and current directors. Some £1.5m was clawed back following the £3.2bn provision taken last year.

But Horta-Osório criticised the claims management firms that submit compensation forms for customers. He said 25% of the claims submitted by these firms were from customers who did not have products with the banks against which claims were being made.

“We have to stop this,” Horta-Osório said. “It’s fraud”.

Despite the extra PPI provision, which comes after Barclays added £300m to its £1bn provision last week, Lloyds reported a pre-tax profit of £288m in the first quarter. A year ago, the PPI provision pushed Lloyds into a £3.4bn loss.

Horta-Osório ordered the provision within weeks of taking the helm of Lloyds in March last year and on Tuesday described the debacle over PPI as “unacceptable”. He said the culture of banking needed to change, adding endowments and interest swaps sold to small business customers as further proof that a cultural shift is needed.

Hired from the UK arm of Spanish bank Santander to replace Eric Daniels, Horta-Osório was careful not to rule out further increases to the PPI provision. “The group continues to monitor the position closely and will re-evaluate the assumptions underlying its analysis as more information becomes available. There is inherent uncertainty in making assumptions and the ultimate financial impact may differ from the amount provided,” the bank said.

Cost cutting balances falling income

With the integration of HBOS – rescued by Lloyds during the 2008 banking crisis – complete, Horta-Osório also targeted 15,000 job cuts on top of the 30,000 already axed through the takeover. Some 3,290 job cuts were announced in the first quarter, taking the total to 5,388 since the start of the cost-cutting programme – and allowing the bank to achieve its annual savings of £352m.

The 7% reduction in costs and a 36% fall in the impairment charge to £1.7bn offset a 15% fall in income to £4.5bn during the quarter and the bank’s shares were the biggest risers in the the FTSE 100 in early trading, up 1.8% to 31.5p. The taxpayer owns just under 40% of Lloyds Banking Group.

“The key area of strength relative to market expectations appears to be impairments, in our view,” said Gary Greenwood, banks analyst at Shore Capital, who also described the extra PPI charge as “disappointing”.

Greenwood expects to reduce his forecast for full year profits because of the weaker revenue.

Horta-Osório insisted Lloyds remained on track to meet the deadline of November 2013 imposed by Europe for the sale of 632 branches, code-named Verde. While talks with the Co-op are no longer exclusivebecause of a number of regulatory glitches, the bank is continuing to work on a stock market flotation and will consider a sale to NBNK, run by former Northern Rock boss Gary Hoffman, if the shell vehicle can prove that regulatory hurdles can be overcome.

After the sale of the branches, Lloyds will still have a 19% share of small business banking and has pledged to lend £12bn to such businesses this year. Some £3.25bn was lent in the first quarter and Lloyds insisted that its net lending – which includes loans being repaid – was up 4% compared with a 4% contraction across the industry.

He also said he could “absolutely” rule out the sale of insurance arm Scottish Widows despite persistent speculation that bids are prepared for the operation.

The bank is accelerating its reduction in non-core assets by £5bn to at least £30bn and will reach its £90bn target for 2012 a year earlier, in 2013.

It also hopes to have a loan-to-deposit ratio – which measures whether banks have enough savings to support their lending – of 120% after reporting an improvement to 130% at the end of March.

The bank faced major problems in funding itself during the banking crisis and has £12.9bn left to repay under the credit guarantee scheme provided by the Bank of England after reducing its reliance on this facility by £10.6bn in the first quarter. It had, however, drawn £11.2bn from the European Central Bank’s long-term refinancing operation (LTRO), one of the ways Europe is attemping to support its banking system.

“We think the outcome for the market and the eurozone continues to be uncertain,” he said.

Lloyds Banking Group has also hired Cathy Turner from Barclays to be the new chief administrative officer – one of a number of management changes Horta-Osório promised after returning to work earlier this year following a period of sick leave caused by extreme fatigue.