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Bosses 'lack strategies for selling their business'

Published On 27 April 2007 at 10:49:54

The owners of the UK's small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) could miss out when the time comes to sell their business because they are not planning the succession early enough, a new report says.

Accountancy Age reports that a study by NVM Private Equity found that 32 per cent of SME owners are yet to implement a succession plan to allow them to leave their business.

The study revealed that 43 per cent of SME bosses are ignoring the issue of succession because they cannot find a suitable replacement.

NVM investment manager James Arrowsmith told Accountancy Age: "It is vital that exiting managers ensure their businesses are as appealing as possible to potential buyers.

"A departing owner-manager with no or an inadequate successor makes buyers nervous and therefore likely to reduce their bid or not bid at all."

According to the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), SMEs employ 58 per cent of the private sector workforce in the UK and contribute 50 per cent of the country's GDP.

 

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