Selling your business is not an everyday event, and most entrepreneurs have no idea where to start. How do you prevent staff, customers, suppliers, and competitors getting wind of it? Where do you find buyers? Is there actually any interest in your business, and how much would it then be worth? Moreover, how does this undertaking actually proceed?

Diligence has already supervised many acquisitions of all sorts and dimensions, and in a wide range of sectors, both in the Netherlands and abroad. We draw not only on over 20 years of knowledge accumulation and experience but also on a vast network of interested parties. Our M&A specialists are advisors and negotiators for every director and majority shareholder (DMS) in the world of company takeovers.

What does Diligence do?

Our services comprise the following activities:

• we map the company (information memorandum)

• we conduct a valuation, and determine the asking price in consultation

• we anonymously and discreetly approach the market, and assess the level of demand among potential buyers

• we provide information to interested parties, and of course after a confidentiality agreement has been signed

• we negotiate with potential buyers, and put this down in a declaration of intent

• we supervise the due diligence investigation, and discuss and negotiate the consequences of the investigation, and

• we help record the transaction achieved in contracts, up to the moment the shares are submitted to the notary public.

In other words, the Diligence M&A specialist will be in charge of the entire selling process. If required, additional fiscal and legal expertise can also be arranged by us, which does not cease when the transaction has been completed. The DMS can also rely on Diligence specialists for aftercare (e.g. a conflict with the buyer, arranging payments, and so on).

This is what ourc clients say about Diligence: click here.

Costs

In consultation with the client, we charge a fixed hourly rate or a fixed contract price for our support activities, in combination with a success fee relating to the value of the transaction negotiated through Diligence.

Succession in a family business

Succession in a family business is a special form of a company takeover, However, the main difference with standard business acquisitions is that the buyer is already there, and you want to seize that opportunity. Even if you do not like something − and the same applies to the successor − you still want to arrange the succession together and make it a success. Read more here.