Selling Company Shares
Selling shares in a company that is registered with Companies House is a legal process requiring the support of a business law specialist.
Typically, privately-owned companies are limited in structure. These include private limited by shares (LTD), private limited by guarantee (LTD), limited liability partnership (LLP), and public limited company (PLC).
Limited companies are able to sell or transfer company shares. This can even be in the form of a gift. Shares can be sold, transferred, or given to other individuals. A company share represents a proportion of the company which is owned by the seller. Having ownership of a share enables you to receive a relative proportion of the company’s overall profits.
Reasons for selling company shares
You may wish to sell your company shares to improve your own cash flow or for other personal reasons such as retirement. Selling company shares could also be used as a way of rewarding employees, for example instead of a pay increase or to ensure employee loyalty if the employee is integral to your company.
In addition, you may wish to sell shares in your company to sell your company through a share purchase. Selling a company through a share purchase involves transferring all, or a significant percentage of the company shares. In this scenario, the buyer becomes the majority shareholder or owner.
What you can expect when instructing Attwells Solicitors
Selling a company by selling your company shares
As mentioned, selling shares in a company can enable you to sell the company outright. The existing shareholders can sell their shares as part of a takeover. Our business law lawyers will be able to transfer assets as part of the share purchase, this includes the transfer of any property.
Attwells Solicitors specialise in supporting medium-sized companies. Our fixed fees and transparent pricing allow for certainty over cost, while our team of business solicitors have the expertise required to achieve the sale of your company share quickly and effectively.
We are rated 4.7 on Feefo and ‘excellent’ on Review Solicitors. Many of the reviews comment and relate to our service promises, use of plain English language, good communication, and price transparency. You should expect one point of contact and communication your way.
Selling a company as a share or asset purchase: What is the difference
When selling a company you can choose to sell the company via acquiring the shares or the assets.
Fundamentally when you sell a company via selling shares you are selling the entire share capital, meaning all the shares. As a consequence, this will only occur when selling a company, as opposed to a business, as a company is registered with Company House and therefore require shares. However, this can be as little as 1 share, meaning there is one shareholder. But it’s more like in large enterprises to be many shares, with numerous shareholders.
But when you sell a company via selling the assets you are selling the assets owned by the company.
Typically, assets include goodwill, manufacturing and IT equipment, and all intellectual property, including client data, plus infrastructure, and brand assets, such as websites, logos, and social media accounts. The assets will relate directly or indirectly to the products or services the business produces or plan to produce and can be tangible or intangible.
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