I was recently contacted by a vendor who wanted to sell his practice.  He had fees in the region of £150,000.  He was a sole practitioner and had two full time members of staff.  He said he had already met two buyers and had two offers on the table and did not know what to do.  I discussed the two offers with him and we finished the conversation.

Less than a week later he came back to me and said that he would like me to find him another buyer because he did not like either of the two offers he had had. He then told me that he was not well and had only three and a half months left to live.  Well that soon changed the priority of finding a buyer for this vendor.

I would normally expect to take between three and four months from start to finish when selling a practice of this size.  In this case we were able to move aside all other work to deal with this as a priority.  The vendor was looking for a one off payment with no clawback but was prepared to give a significant discount on the purchase price.  Within three days I had interviewed four potential purchasers and had two offers on the table with proof of funding.  I selected one of the buyers for the vendor to meet.

With hospital appointments and chemotherapy about to start, there was not a lot of time for due diligence to take place.  I helped the buyer by making sure as many of his questions were answered as quickly as possible.  I helped the vendor by selecting the purchaser for him.

The outcome was that the deal took two weeks to complete.  The vendor was delighted and the buyer wrote a letter and I quote “I am most grateful for your assistance and support in the acquisition process and consider your overall level of service to have been excellent”.  Our brokerage fee was paid well within the payment terms and everyone involved was happy.

I have since had a call from the vendor to say that he is responding well to treatment and has a light at the end of the tunnel – which he did not have when we first spoke.  Let us hope his future is bright.

If you want to talk about this, or any other matter please email me at n.draper@draperhinks.co.uk quoting reference Blog 140805