Thinking of Selling your Business

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If you are considering selling or leasing your commercial property or looking to exit your current business by assigning your lease, you need look no further than ASG Commercial as we will help you find a purchaser or tenant. ASG Commercial is able to act on your behalf whether you are:

Selling or leasing any licensed trade business (Hotel, Inn, Restaurant, Bar, Licensed Grocers)
Selling Self-catering Accommodation
Selling a Bed and Breakfast, Guest House, Hostel or Bunk House
Selling or leasing a Retail Unit, Café or Food Takeaway
Letting available Office Space
Disposing of an Industrial Unit
Selling or leasing any other type of Commercial Property

Our Head of Commercial Agency (Paul Hart) will work with you to develop a specific marketing package that will give your business the optimum level of exposure to the market.

As one of the foremost Commercial Estate Agents in the North of Scotland and the leading Agent to the hospitality sector, we provide a strong customer focused service based upon sound values of integrity and professional knowledge. Working within the local property sector our market perspective enables us to combine our local, national and inter-national marketing capacity to deliver a high rate of success in concluding property and business transfers.

Our competitive rates provide excellent value for money and do not expose our clients to unnecessary financial risk. Our uncomplicated terms of engagement with a 'no sale no commission' arrangement, provide clarity on the services we offer and the undertakings required of our clients to facilitate an effective marketing and sales program.

Our dedicated commercial sales team and legal practitioners provide the following professional services:

Pre-sales valuation (Click here)
Accounts analysis (Click here)
Operational expertise
Licensing advice
Pre-sale administration and checks (Click here)
Comprehensive marketing package:
- Scottish Solicitors Property Centre (SSPC) / Highland Solicitors Property Centre (HSPC) marketing
- ASG Commercial website
- Use of leading portal websites (Click Here)
Mailing List and Property matching service
Full colour property schedules
EPC compliance and provision (Click here)
Full Legal support in conveyancing or license transfers

Pre-sales Evaluation

A pre-sales evaluation has a number of specific aims:

Determine if your business is in the best position to maximise gain from a sale
Assess the market value of the business
Advise on the most advantageous marketing strategy to achieve a successful sale of your business

To determine the points above and aid a successful outcome, we require from the outset:

Your last three years certified accounts to have an understanding of the business’s current financial performance
To gain an insight in to the success factors of your business
Access to the entire property if possible and the opportunity to take photos
To ascertain your motives for selling

Accounts Analysis

It will be helpful to conduct an analysis of your accounts to determine the profitability levels of the business. Any business sale will be greatly affected by our ability to present the business in the most positive way. In the current economic situation, financial institutions are less likely to lend on a business that is not able to demonstrate it is trading profitably.

We will work out the EBITDA defined as Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortisation for your business. This is a measure of a business’s financial performance, by computing earnings from core business trading, without including the effects of capital structure, tax rates and depreciation policies.

EBITDA is used by surveyors to value a business. Likewise purchasers looking to obtain finance will often produce a cash flow based upon EBITDA. Banks look at the performance of the business being purchased and assess some risk criteria based on the EBITDA calculation. As professional sales agents we use the EBITDA in our assessment of the sales value of a property / business.

Your accountant should be able to advise you on this matter and produce an abstract of accounts which will present your accounts in a format appropriate for the sale. We would be pleased to discuss matters directly with your accountant but they will need your express permission to release financial information to ASG Commercial. However, please note there are other methodologies for determining a sales valuation.

Pre-sale Administration and Checks

It is imperative that selling your business is undertaken in a professional fashion. Before we market your business we require the following information:

Certified Accounts (3 Years)
Management Accounts (Up to date)
Operating Plan under the Licensing Scotland Act 2005 (A copy of)
Building Plans
Title Plans
Planning Consents
Conformity Certificates (Fire, EHO, Asbestos Reports etc.)
Energy Performance Certificate (EPC)
Identification for Money Laundering compliance (Photo ID and Utilities Bill)

We can only proceed to market with a valid signed contract and the instruction fee fully paid.

Use of leading Portal Websites

In addition to using our own very effective website (www.asgcommercial.co.uk) and HSPC (www.hspc.co.uk) which now feeds into the comprehensive Scottish Solicitors Property Centre (www.sspc.co.uk) site which covers all properties for sale through solicitors throughout Scotland (except Aberdeen) we also use the following:

EPC Compliance

The owner of any business being presented for sale or rent (leasehold) must by law, provide prospective purchasers or tenants, free of charge, with an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC). This is a legal requirement under The Energy Performance of Buildings (Scotland) Regulations 2008. This is different to the Home Report that is required for a domestic property, which has to be done through a surveyor.

ASG Commercial works closely with a number of fully qualified and accredited agencies who are able to carry out surveys and produce Commercial EPC's through BRE (Building Research Establishment).

Paul Hart will be happy to answer any initial queries you might have about EPCs and will also be pleased to make the necessary introductions so you can achieve a competitive quote to produce an EPC for your commercial property.

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