Sale of business
Paul acted for the seller, supported by Justine Harris Hughes, in relation to the sale of its assets and business to a larger competitor. The seller was one of several companies under common ownership and, for strategic reasons, the owners wished to divest themselves of this non-core business to enable them to concentrate on their core businesses.
What WHN Delivered
Paul’s work involved reporting to the client on and negotiating a detailed asset purchase agreement with the buyer’s in-house lawyer.
As the client was based in the South East of England, Paul predominantly liaised with them via email, telephone calls and Teams meetings, enabling them to develop a close working relationship with him so he could understand, and work to achieve, their commercial objectives.
The complex agreement provided for two retention accounts, one relating to apportionments of expenses and the second more significant retention relating to clearance payments of outstanding finance on certain vehicles and machinery and the obtaining of satisfactory evidence of the release of the lender’s security over those assets. Paul ensured the conditions relating to this latter retention were fulfilled and the amounts were released to the client in full.
Paul also prepared a disclosure letter and disclosure bundle setting out exceptions to the detailed warranties in the asset purchase agreement to protect the client’s interests.
The parties each wished to expedite matters for their own business reasons and Paul and the team worked efficiently and communicated clearly and constructively to complete the matter in less than two months from receiving instructions.
About the client
Based in Surrey, the client was an independent business supplying both trade and commercial customers across Surrey, Sussex and Kent with high-quality onsite mixed and ready mixed concrete. They had been trading for almost 25 years and supply specialist products such as self-compacting concrete, waterproof concrete, foam concrete, and floor screed as well as interlocking concrete blocks.
