Melbourne, 2 April 2012: Owners of
privately-owned businesses should ensure they are sale-ready and
able to move quickly if they receive an attractive purchase offer,
or risk failing to maximise the true value of their investment,
according to Clayton Utz partner Nick Miller.
Nick, who specialises in negotiated merger and acquisition
transactions and has acted for both buyers and sellers, including
private equity funds, said a business that is poorly prepared for
sale can potentially result in the loss of significant value. This
could be avoided if potential roadblocks to a successful sale were
addressed well before the business owner received any approach to
buy.
"Privately owned business represent around 97 per cent of
all businesses in Australia today[1], and forty-five percent of
private business owners say they are actively planning the future
sale of the business," said Nick. "Ensuring that the
business is ready to respond swiftly to an approach by
