Corporate Finance

All businesses at some stage of their development are subject to strategic change. Our specialist team of solicitors advise businesses, companies and financial institutions on a variety of complex and ambitious transactions, often involving a cross-border element.

We are able to deliver a full range of advice and services which apply to any corporate transaction and by working in multidisciplinary teams we utilise the expertise of our employment, property and IT/IP specialists to allow us to deliver a seamless commercial and pragmatic service to help you to achieve your objectives.

Whether you are buying, or selling, a business, or the shares in a company, we can advise you on the terms of the transaction from the outset of discussions. We can help you negotiate the heads of terms, confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements, raise or respond to due diligence enquiries, and draft and negotiate the main transaction documents, including the asset purchase or share purchase agreement, and any ancillary documents, such as letters of resignation and Companies House forms.

A transaction where a company is acquired by its existing management team supported by private equity investment and/or debt financing/A transaction where both new and existing management are involved in the acquiring the company.

When a company is looking to raise capital for business needs, there are two primary financing options: Debt financing and private equity.
Debt financing can take various different forms including traditional term-loan lending from a Bank, invoice financing (unlocking immediate working capital by selling unpaid invoices to the lender) and trade finance (including letters of credit, purchase order financing and supply chain financing).
Private equity usually involves selling a percentage interest in your business to a third party investor, whether that is a private individual or perhaps a venture capital firm. This will usually impact on the balance of power within the company as the investor will be looking to protect their investment either through voting on the board of directors or at shareholder level.

Mergers take place where one or more businesses join together, and demergers take place where a business splits into two or more separate businesses, usually by issuing shares in one or more companies to the shareholders of the existing business.
With specialist support from your tax advisors our team at Wake Smith can help implement the right structure for your business.

Whether you are looking to introduce a new partner or shareholder, vary the percentage ownership of the business, or retire from the business, our specialist team can assist in advising on the structure and preparing the documents to implement the new arrangements.

To read our latest Company advice articles and business law updates please click here.

If you have any questions, or if you wish to make an enquiry online please click the 'contact us' button, or alternatively you can call us on 0114 266 6660.

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