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Making Connections

Why use Wolfe Bishop?

Wolfe Bishop have been retained by a large global business services group looking to grow their insurance business.

The insurance sector is changing and there are a growing number of larger businesses looking to consolidate the market. It doesn’t matter if you are directly authorised or an Appointed Representative in a network your book of clients has a value to someone.

We are also looking for businesses delivering Employee Benefits, Health & Safety advice, Employment support for Employers and Wealth Management.

We also can help with:

  • Business Health Checks
  • Succession & Retirement Planning
  • Sales – developing sales strategies & sales team evaluations
  • Marketing – review of digital profile, marketing strategies and plans

The challenges facing most owner managed businesses are very similar – am I happy where I am, do I want to grow and what do I do if I want to retire.

Insurance, in particular, is a very conservative sector with clients rarely changing Broker. Organic growth is challenging. Growth through acquisition is a very positive way to overcome this, making the disposal of your business an exciting opportunity.

Retirement planning is not always something at the top of people’s agenda. Age kind of creeps up on us. Structured disposal deals will often lead to a period of continued involvement during the “earn out” period, which can support the transition into reduced working or no working at all.

There are tax advantages from disposing of your shares through a sale. However, the rules keep getting modified – the latest change has been to limit the total amount of relief you can claim. With the Treasury constantly tweaking the rules it may be a good time to sell. The keys to a successful sale are simple – but like most things the devil is in the detail. If you are a sole shareholder this is much easier as you make the decision. Where there are multiple shareholders things are more complicated and an agreement is needed from all parties. This may be simpler if there is a Shareholder Agreement in place. We can help you through this process and establish a consensus on value, timing and on-going involvement post sale.

We will help you arrive at a realistic valuation for your business. It is an absolute truth that sellers over value and buyers will look to chip away at the price. Valuing a business is generally quite straight forward but requires some work to understand the history, develop forecasts for the business post sale. This requires some time and effort – Wolfe Bishop can help with this. There is a cost for this work. The level of which depends on the size and complexity of your business. Finding a buyer is more difficult.

You don’t really want to advertise you are for sale as this creates issues with your clients and employees. One of the things we will help you with as part of our work creating the sales pack it to review employment contracts to make sure key staff cannot leave with the customer list. If this is absent it is something we will help you fix before you look to market your business.

The Directors of Wolfe Bishop have a track record of buying and selling business in a number of sectors as well as insurance. We have contacts throughout the UK and will help you promote your business, confidentially to a small number of carefully selected buyers. We will then work with you and the buyer to get an agreed Heads of Terms – in our experience this is essential before we move to incur costs of Due Diligence and Legals. Once the Heads of Terms are in place we will stay with you and the buyer to make sure the deal progresses smoothly acting as a mediator between the parties and their professional advisors to prevent costs building and small problems becoming deal breakers.

We are actively looking for:

We are currently working alongside a major Group of Companies looking to acquire businesses in the following sectors:

  • Insurance
  • Employee Benefits
  • Health & Safety
  • Employment
  • Wealth Management

Services we provide:

Acquisitions

What are acquisitions?

We are retained by a large global insurance brokerage to find them acquisitions in the UK and Europe. Having taken their brief, we have profiled the ideal acquisition targets and then reach out to begin the dialogue. We manage the interactions and negotiations to ensure a smooth transaction both pre- and post-acquisition.

Disposals

We work with you to develop your sales pack, highlighting your strengths and summarising your financial achievements. We then agree a target profile for your ideal buyer and then go and make contact on a “no names” basis. Interested parties are reviewed and we help you begin the process of negotiating the sale, handling due diligence and making sure the deal completes.

Business Development

How we can help you.
  • Business Health Checks
  • Succession & Retirement Planning
  • Sales& Marketing

Do you require our services?

Get in contact with us today and find out more about Wolfe Bishop.

Contact Us