Page 17 - Wealth of Experience - Selling a Business 2019

CASE STUDY – BRIAN IRVINE

MAKING SURE HARD

WORK PAYS OFF!

I’d put my heart and It ended up being a two-horse race. For me, I spent time preparing for the
soul into developing There was a British PLC who were sale, beyond simply managing the
our management team, offering a larger sum pitching against business. I got physically fitter before
going into the sale process, just
a US industry buyer, who seemed
knowing this would be to have a much better grasp of the because of how onerous I knew it to
important when we sold. process. be. You need to be able to cope with
We wanted to ensure that I didn’t want to sell to private equity. I it mentally. You know you’ll be juggling
our employees kept their didn’t like the idea of guys coming in the sale with the day-to-day running of
jobs and I was incredibly waving their cheque books with the your business.
pleased with the overall sole aim of attaining a 40% internal Our shareholders were informed at
outcome. rate of return, with little care for the an early stage. Towards the tail end
state of the company. I like to think we I think that some more people might
We eventually sold to an American ran a pretty tight ship and this certainly have had an inkling, but I don’t think
buyer who had the experience to take helped the sales process. Even then, confidentiality was ever fully breached.
the business on to the next level. there were still things that came up
We’d bought the company in 1998 in the due diligence. Preparing as
and it was on a steep growth curve. much as you can for due diligence is “I spent time preparing
We were supplying the American essential. Never ever hide anything. for the sale beyond
energy sector heavily and after Obama Get everything out on the table and simply managing the
said that the US would be energy self- work out how you can mitigate issues. business... you need to
sufficient in the near future it seemed Things can always bite you. Always be able to cope with it
that the stars were aligned for us to understand their implications and try mentally.”
get a good sale price. to be realistic about what they mean.
The sale process started a few years There’s no doubt that your business
before we actually sold. Following a is your baby - and aligned with this So what now? I’ve been keeping
beauty parade, we gave Cooper Parry is a moral responsibility for its future myself busy. I thought I’d be going
Corporate Finance the mandate to and that of your employees. I had to into semi-retirement, but the reality
identify potential buyers. As part of leave it to the right person to be able has been far from it. I work six days
this, they drew on their network to to sleep well at night. The US firm a week, growing other sides of the
approach a company in LA who had seemed totally committed to making business. The excitement of running a
knowledge of one of our potential it work, they didn’t cut any corners, business never ends. And I can’t think
acquirers. giving us confidence in their offer. of anything I’d rather be doing!
Originally, we were only selling part Any regrets? I gave away a lot of my
of our group. We were the world business as equity to employees. In
leading producer of a specialist type hindsight, I think I would have been
of ceramics, so we were known to all better to incentivise using bonuses.
our potential buyers before the sale
took place.
“Preparing as much
We were fortunate to have a as you can for due
considerable number of interested diligence is essential.
parties. We looked closely at each,
assessing their ability to deliver Never hide anything.”
against our key criteria.

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