If you want to undergo a business merger, then you will first want to be clear on your reasons for doing so.
Maybe you want to scale your company, grow your share or even eliminate a competitor. Either way, it is vital that you assess your reasons properly, so you can take the legal steps to protect your interest. It is also important that your business has healthy finances. Appointing an accountant to go through your books will help you to find out if your company has the robustness to finalise the deal.
Legal proceedings
Employee and HR issues should be assessed, such as if there are any redundancies, or if there are tax bills to be paid. During your merger, it is also important that you assess any regulatory issues, property owned by the company, or even environmental policies. Not all of these things will apply to every merger. The smaller partner that is partaking in the merger, who will usually be the selling partner, should try and disclose a document while identifying potential problems. Both partners should agree on the scope of the disclosure in general so that there is not too much of a burden placed on the selling company. This can be costly, but you should never skip out on this step.
Protecting your business
Unfortunately, some mergers fail. If this does happen, it is most likely going to happen during the critical transition period. Having a contingency plan will help you greatly here. You should also have a clause that helps you to define failure and how you are going to deal with it. Each company should have their own solicitor so that both interests can be protected. If you want to minimise the chances of your merger failing and if you want to maximise the chances of capitalising on the biggest benefits, then you will need to hire a legal service. They should be present at every step of the process. With the right level of technical insight and with the right business vision you can be sure to reap the biggest benefits.
Contracts and terms
Another major reason why you need to hire a solicitor when merging your business is that they can provide you with a great deal of support when it comes to contracts, terms and conditions and even shareholder exit strategies. Hiring a qualified solicitor will help to make the whole process less complicated and it also means that you will be advised on how to best prepare for the transition.
If you need some legal support when it comes to your business merger or if you want to try and make sure that yours goes as smoothly as possible then the best thing that you can do is contact us today. We are able to offer you a complete package of advice while also making sure that we tailor everything to meet the needs of your company, and what it is you want to achieve from your merger. We have offices in Torpoint, Tavistock, Kingsbridge and Plymouth.