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Buying or Selling Shares of a Company


This guide is intended to give an overview of the process for the share buying and selling in a company.

However, every situation is unique and it is likely that you'll find it useful to talk to an experienced Business Lawyer as early in the process as possible.

At Lanyon Bowdler our experienced team of Commercial Business Solicitors provide comprehensive advice to those wishing to buy or sell shares in a company.  Please call now for a no obligation initial consultation or leave your details in the online enquiry form and we will call you back.

Preliminary Stages

The first stage that the parties will go through involves the negotiation of the basic terms of the deal. Sometimes the parties will negotiate direct with each other; sometimes they will go through an agent or broker.

Once the parties have come to a basic agreement, they sometimes wish to set this out in writing by using “Heads of Agreement”.

Heads of Agreement

Heads of Agreement is the document which sets out the basic but fundamental terms that the parties have agreed. It will detail the shares being purchased, how much is being paid for them and any other important terms that are known at this stage, such as whether there will be deferred payments of the price, whether the seller might continue to work in the company as a consultant or employee, whether the price is dependent on the asset value or performance of the company, whether the final price is to be linked to an “Earn out” mechanism.

The Heads of Agreement are usually stated not to be legally binding, with the exception of clauses relating to confidentiality and any “lock-out” provisions. Lock-out provisions are usually intended to stop the seller negotiating with any other prospective buyers for a fixed period, and to allow the buyer to carry out all the necessary investigations into the business.

The advantage of Heads of Agreement is that they help to clarify exactly what the parties understand the basis of the deal to be. Potential “deal breakers” can be identified and dealt with before significant legal fees are incurred.

It is therefore important that the Heads of Agreement are properly prepared. Lanyon Bowdler Corporate Team have a wealth of experience in negotiating and drafting Heads of Agreement for all types of deals.

Other Considerations

When purchasing shares in a company the buyer indirectly inherits all the assets and liabilities (including historic liabilities) of the company. There are also considerations as to the employees, any property that the company occupies and whether the company has had any Revenue or other regulatory investigations in the past.

The employees will remain with the company under their existing terms and conditions. It is therefore important to know what these are and also to find out whether there are any potential problems with the employees, for example, onerous terms and conditions of employment, such as benefits or bonuses.

Another important issue that needs careful consideration are the premises from which the seller trades. The buyer will need to consider and plan for the future and will need to know whether the company requires the premises. The seller will either own the freehold of the premises or have a lease of the premises. If the premises are occupied under a lease then the buyer will need to look into the lease to see the length of the remainder of the term where necessary whether this can be renewed and also the liabilities under the lease. The buyer will also need to check there are no change of control provisions in the lease in respect of the ownership of the shares of the tenant company since these will give the landlord the right to terminate the lease if his consent to the change of ownership is not obtained. As in normal situations when buying a property, enquiries and searches will need to be carried out.

There are many ancillary issues that Lanyon Bowdler’s Corporate Team are aware of and we will be able to guide you through the process as a seller or a buyer.

Non-Disclosure Agreement

Once the Heads of Terms have been agreed, the next stage is for the seller to obtain a non-disclosure agreement or confidentiality undertaking from the buyer. Once that has been obtained the next stage is Due Diligence. Sometimes if the seller and buyer want to discuss matters, but do not know what the terms of the deal should be, they enter into a Non-Disclosure Agreement and then Heads of Terms.

Due Diligence

Due Diligence is the name given to the process by which the buyer of a company discovers all the information he would like to know about the company he is buying.

Very often a buyer will have done his basic Due Diligence and obtained various copies of accounts, contracts, marketing materials and other documents before instructing his lawyers. However, one of the first things that the buyer’s lawyers will do is to prepare a detailed list of questions about the accounts, assets, affairs, financial and tax position of the company. This questionnaire is forwarded to the seller’s lawyers, who will often answer the more technical questions themselves, but the majority of the questions would be answered by the seller, usually with the assistance of his or the company’s accountant.

Very often, a buyer’s Due Diligence questionnaire will contain questions that the seller might think, on the face of it, to be irrelevant. However, the buyers and sellers need to remember that a lawyer is looking for detailed technical points that a layperson cannot be expected to appreciate might have a significant effect on the company, its assets or business.

The Due Diligence process is a constantly evolving one, and does not end with the sending of the first questionnaire and the receipt of the answers to it. Very often, the Due Diligence answers will raise more questions of their own. The answers themselves will usually be accompanied by large volumes of documents.

It is very important that the parties and their lawyers keep a careful record of the Due Diligence answers and documents received, as they will usually be referred to in the Disclosure Letter (see below).

The Due Diligence process referred to here is that carried out by the buyer into the affairs of the company. It is the experience of Lanyon Bowdler’s Corporate Team that many sellers underestimate the amount of management time that dealing with the buyer’s Due Diligence takes. This can be an unwanted distraction from actually managing the business and may involve the sellers having to request and chase documents and information from third parties. It is our advice that sellers do their best to get as much information and documentation (such as material contracts) in order at an early stage and prior to actually putting the company up for sale.

The Share Purchase Agreement

The buyer’s lawyer will usually prepare the first draft of the SPA. This will be forwarded to the seller’s lawyers as quickly as possible for review. It is extremely unlikely that the first draft will be the final draft. Indeed, it is entirely normal for a SPA to go through several drafts before a final version is agreed. The reason for this is that the first version of the draft SPA often raises new issues even where the parties have entered into Heads of Terms.The parties will wish to put in detailed provisions regarding how and when the price is to be paid, the warranties the seller is to give (see below), how the sellers liability is to be limited (see below) and possibly non-competition provisions preventing the seller from competing in the future with the company he is selling.

It is not unusual for the SPA to take several weeks of negotiation from first to final and agreed draft.

The Warranties

The warranties are a detailed list of statements by the seller regarding the state of the company and its affairs and are usually drafted in generally unqualified terms. They will include warranties relating to the seller’s legal ownership of the shares and his right to sell them, the accounting and tax affairs of the company, employment terms of the company’s employees, that there are no disputes or litigation involving the company, no problems with the company’s trading, details of all land and property owned or used by the company, and the accuracy of details of intellectual property (such as copyrights, computer software, trademarks etc) used by the company, etc.

The warranties form the basis upon which the buyer has recourse against the seller if anything goes wrong in the future. The buyer will therefore want the warranties to be as comprehensive and detailed as possible. The seller will wish to give as few warranty promises as he can. This means that the first draft of the SPA will contain very strong and lengthy warranties. The seller can seek to reduce his exposure in several ways.

  • Amend the warranty to something that is more acceptable.
  • Delete any warranties that are irrelevant to the business and affairs of the company.
  • Limit the scope of the warranty by a disclosure (see below).

The negotiating of the final form of the warranties is perhaps the most lengthy part of the negotiation process.

Although there are some standard warranties, the precise form and details of the warranties will depend largely on the result of the Due Diligence process. As the Due Diligence process is likely to be ongoing while the contract negotiating process is running, it is likely that a buyer would seek to introduce completely new Warranties at any time during the negotiating process, as information becomes available. In addition to warranties, a buyer might seek indemnities in respect of specific matters. An indemnity is stronger than a warranty, in that a warranty is a general statement by the seller that there is no particular problem, so it is therefore up to the buyer to find a problem. An indemnity is used where the buyer has actually identified a specific or likely problem, and is seeking a promise from the seller to make good any loss arising out of that particular problem on a £ for £ basis.

Alongside the SPA, there is a further document called a Disclosure Letter, which seeks to limit the scope of the warranties.

The Disclosure Letter

The Disclosure Letter is a document signed by the seller in which the seller sets out matters of which he is aware that are at odds with the Warranties and thereby seeks to qualify the Warranty. For example, if there is a Warranty that the company is involved in no litigation but, in fact, the seller knows that the company has a pending lawsuit, the Disclosure Letter will contain a “disclosure” referring to that lawsuit.

The point of the Disclosure Letter is to bring to the buyer’s attention before completion of the sale any potential problems. The buyer would then lose the right to sue the seller if any losses occurred as a result of those “disclosed” problems, provided they have been fully and fairly disclosed. The Disclosure Letter is therefore an extremely important document for the seller, because it gives the seller the opportunity to exclude or limit his liability in relation to problems that he knows exist.

From the buyer’s point of view, the Disclosure Letter is also an important document, as it causes the seller to bring the buyer’s attention to problems before he is committed to buying the company. The buyer might choose to accept a disclosure and take the risk accordingly, or he might seek an indemnity (see above) in respect of the specific problems disclosed, as specific indemnities would not be limited by the Disclosure Letter. If a problem is serious enough, a buyer might seek to renegotiate the price or even to pull out of the deal completely.

The seller also has means other than the Disclosure Letter for limiting his liability.

Limitation of the Seller’s Liability

The SPA will contain clauses limiting the seller’s liability to the buyer if there is a breach of warranty. Claims against the seller by the buyer will usually be limited in time. In respect of most claims the time limit is likely to be sufficient to allow the company at least a complete financial year after completion. However, the usual time limit is between one and two years. This is generally long enough for the buyer to find any potential problems – indeed it is likely that the buyer will find any skeletons in the cupboard within the first few months after completion.

Tax matters are usually limited to six or seven years because the tax authorities have the right to make a claim against the company for six years after the end of the relevant financial year.

In relation to tax, sellers should be aware that the SPA will usually contain a tax covenant, the effect of which is that the buyer will be responsible for tax of the company after completion, and the seller will be responsible for the tax of the company before completion notwithstanding that completion may be part way through a tax year or there may be unpaid tax. The company usually will have made provision for such tax, but to the extent it has not or has failed to pay any tax due prior to completion then this will be the seller’s liability.

The seller’s liability will also usually be limited in terms of the financial value. It is normal for the buyer to be able to sue the seller for the return of the purchase money only, or sometimes just a percentage of the purchase money.

The seller must be aware that the limitations in liability that are agreed in respect of warranty claims may not apply in full or be so robust to claims in respect of tax and they will often only be of limited scope in relation to indemnities (as opposed to Warranties).

Once the SPA is agreed, the matter can proceed to completion.

Completion

The completion of the sale of the shares usually takes place at the offices of the buyer’s lawyers, usually immediately after signing the SPA. However, sometimes the SPA provides for a delayed completion to take place after a gap period, e.g. where the SPA is conditional upon certain matters taking place before completion can take place. All sellers and buyers, their lawyers, and sometimes their accountants as well, will attend the completion meeting at which any final few items remaining to be agreed will be finalised, final drafts of the documents prepared and the parties will then sign all the SPA and ancillary documents.

At the completion meeting, officers of the company being sold will usually resign and new ones will be appointed, board meetings will be held to deal with the various company affairs arising out of completion, and sometimes shareholders’ meetings will be required also, as it is common for the constitution documents (the Memorandum and Articles) of the company to require changing as part of the deal process.

All of the company’s records and documents will be handed over at completion, and the money will be paid, usually by telegraphic transfer between the respective parties’ lawyers.

How the Lanyon Bowdler Corporate Team can Help

The sale and purchase of a company can be a protracted and stressful process with numerous business issues and sometimes sensitive personal issues to be considered and agreed. Whether acting for a buyer or a seller we will seek to manage the transaction in such a way that as much of the burden and stress of the transaction is undertaken by ourselves whilst keeping you informed of the progress and important issues. We will agree with you at the outset of the transaction how you wish us to report to you and wherever possible once we understand and have agreed the scope of the transaction we will agree a fixed fee.

It is vital that whether you are buying or selling a company you choose legal advisers who are experienced and regularly deal with company sales and purchases and who are aware not only to the legal issues but the business and personal issues as well, all of which are features of these transactions.

Contact Lanyon Bowdler Solicitors

Contact our Business Sale & Purchase Lawyers us a call or complete our online enquiry form, to see how we can help. We have offices in Shrewsbury, Bromyard, Conwy, Hereford, Ludlow, Oswestry and Telford so we are able to act for clients all over Shropshire, Herefordshire, Mid and North Wales and across the Midlands.

If you require any further information or assistance, please contact: Grainne Walters on 01952 211062 (email grainne.walters@lblaw.co.uk).

Testimonials

We were keen to complete an asset purchase of an online business within a three-week timescale, in a busy period leading up to the end of the year. Enquiries with other law firms were discouraging but Lanyon Bowdler took on the task and completed the purchase five days ahead of target! The contract documents and proposals were all professionally handled and promptly executed. Well done!  

- Martin, Via Review Solicitors

Extremely efficient when dealing with a company transfer arrangement that was far from straight forward. Very pleasant team.

- Mr D & Mrs S Ford, Surrey

Thank you for your professional help, advice and commitment to ensure we had the best outcome.

- Mrs S Peruffo, Herefordshire