In July 2015’s edition of Munich’s IT entrepreneur platform newsletter (“UnternehmerBrief Münchner UnternehmerKreis IT”) Peter Harter, managing partner of SAXO Equity, shared his insights on how entrepreneurs can prepare for talks with potential buyers:
- Selling a company requires time and attention
- Measures aimed at optimizing the company’s set-up for a sale should be planned well ahead of talks with potential buyers
- Quality of information is essential and information should be readily available
- Unrealistic and/or unfounded valuation expectations will lead to a failure of discussions with potential buyers
- A successful company sale without a structured sales process will generally require a number of attempts. Exploratory talks with several potential buyers in parallel can provide better appraisal of realistic valuations and strategic alternatives
A professional check-up will help identifying the most relevant action points and potential deal-breakers. With value-driving measures successfully implemented potential sellers will be able to make use of interesting opportunities coming up.