Organizing the disposal or acquisition process
Organizing
The process
A well-thought-out sale or acquisition process optimizes your negotiation position and sometimes has a decisive incidence on the success of the transaction.
Which questions to ask first if you are selling?
- Were there few or many transactions in the economic sector of your company in the last few years?
- How many potential buyers do you expect may be interested in your company?
- Do you have a preference for certain potential buyers rather than others? In consideration of which constraints?
- Did you already receive indications of interest from certain potential buyers?
- Is the confidentiality of the transaction of paramount importance?
- Have all of the potential buyers a foothold in France?
- Are financial investors likely to be interested in your company?
- Is it possible that not all of the different potential buyers react in the same delay?
- Could certain potential buyers encounter difficulties at financing the transaction?
Which questions to ask first if you are buying?
- How many targets are you likely to be interested in?
- Do you have a strong preference for some of them?
- Is the stock ownership of these targets concentrated or dispersed?
- Are you already in contact with the stockholders and business leaders of these targets?
- How would these stockholders and business leaders perceive a merger with your company?
- Could a transaction lead to strong reactions of certain clients or suppliers?
- How many transactions do you wish to carry out and can you manage at the same time, and/or in which sequences and with which priorities?
- Are other potential buyers likely to submit competitive offers? What are their strengths and weaknesses?
The answers to these questions may lead you to:
- Either enter a one-to-one negotiation or organize a limited auction (if you are selling).
- Decide when to request a negotiation exclusivity and under which conditions precedent (if you are buying).
