For business owners, employee ownership is an excellent way to hand over the reins of a business and ensure a smooth succession. It can also be a tax efficient way for you to exit your company without paying any capital gains tax. The other benefits can include flexibility over the timing and pace of your exit.
For businesses too, there are proven benefits to employee ownership, including higher productivity, staff engagement and customer satisfaction.
As a result, it’s an increasingly popular way of running, and selling, a business.
Partner-led advice
Our practical experience of supporting businesses on the employee ownership process means we can guide business owners through all the key decisions and steps, including:
- whether employee ownership is the best route for you and your business
- how to structure the deal and ownership – for example, through an Employee Ownership Trust, direct purchase of shares by employees, or a hybrid structure
- how to pace the deal – as a staged process or a one-off transaction
- governance issues, such as setting up employee leadership councils
- financing the deal.
Our practical and commercially-minded team can advise on all these elements, and also help you and your business realise maximum mutual benefits from any deal. We can also introduce you to specialist employee ownership consultants who can prepare a feasibility study and explain practical aspects of how employee ownership could work for your company.
Guidance on related areas
As a full-service law firm, we can also provide specialist support on many other legal aspects that may stem from selling or running the business – from employment law issues, to negotiating contracts or leases, to the family law and private client issues that are so important to family businesses.
