Company transactions

If you’re not an institutional investor, you don’t buy or sell businesses that often. Here you will find practical support for your corporate transaction.

Contents

Do you want to sell your company or sell shares in your company? Do you want to buy a company or take a stake in one? In any case, you have come to the right place if you need support. Here you will find useful information about corporate transactions. As a seller, you may find our briefing on the preparation and implementation of a succession plan helpful. You can use our capitalized earnings value calculator to roughly determine the value of the company up for transaction. You can also use the deformed investment appraisal template to see what value a business will provide you. Information about the decision process can help you structure your decision in a meaningful way. If applicable, the deformed template can help you identify whether it makes economic sense to merge locations as part of a business transaction.

The template for liquidity planning and, if applicable, the template for integrated financial planning will help you in any case when planning the financing of a company acquisition. As a prospective buyer, you can also use our checklists for the various aspects of due diligence.

Advantages of our templates for corporate transactions

• As a prospective buyer as well as a seller, you will benefit from the information and formatted templates on corporate transactions.
• Our capitalized earnings value calculator provides you with a reliable statement of the company’s value in just a few minutes and without in-depth technical knowledge.
• With access to the format templates, you save time and effort when preparing an investment calculation, a business plan and liquidity planning.

What is a corporate transaction?

The term “corporate transaction” covers any form of purchase or sale of companies or parts of companies. A distinction is made between share deals, in which the rights to the business shares are transferred to new owners, and asset deals, in which selected assets are transferred to new owners. These assets are usually essential for the business operations, such as contracts or parts of the fixed assets, but not the company itself.

Process of a corporate transaction

Definition of the transaction object

Corporate transactions usually begin with the definition of what is to be sold or acquired. In this first phase it is important to be able to imagine the situation after a transaction.

Company valuation

Once the transaction object is defined, a valuation can be performed. The valuation is based on the after-tax income that is expected to accrue to the owner in the future from this transaction object. The value depends not only on the transaction object itself, but also on the prerequisites of the owner (synergy effects).

Search for transaction partners

If the transaction object is defined, the phase of the purposeful search for transaction partners, thus buyers and/or salesmen of the transaction object, begins. In this phase the balancing act between market reach on the one hand and confidentiality on the other hand must be mastered.

Negotiation of the transaction contract

Once a serious interested party has been found, the phase of negotiating the transaction contract starts, including due diligence. In the transaction contract, guarantees of the seller are usually agreed upon, which are included in detail during the due diligence.

Signing and closing of the transaction agreement

If the contracting parties can reach an agreement, they sign the transaction contract (signing) and carry out the transfer of ownership of the transaction object (closing). This concludes the corporate transaction.