Roughly how long is the process of selling a business?

n1guy

I've been made redundant a number of times now, Not like this though when an employer sells the business. The business itself is worth nothing compared the site it's on, it was worth 2 million 10 years ago so god knows how much it would be worth now.

Since the start of the year, there have been several building contractor type guys in and today what looked like an estate agent valuing the place.

My boss is 62 and the site is his retirement nest egg. Roughly how long does this type of thing take? Is it a quick thing or is it drawn out over 2-3 years type of thing

getmore4less

It could be days if someone has the cash.

Shutting/winding the business down could be the bit that takes time.

Check the local planning portal for any speculative planning applications.

In March it was valued at £5m a couple of years back

n1guy

getmore4less wrote: »

It could be days if someone has the cash.

Shutting/winding the business down could be the bit that takes time.

Check the local planning portal for any speculative planning applications.

In March it was valued at £5m a couple of years back

Planning portal was a great idea, had a search, they tried selling 10 years ago, application put in by a building contractor, it's was declined, someone objected. So surly this means before they sell it if they are information will appear on there first?

getmore4less

Might or might not.

Read the objections, the objectors may have moved on.

if the council policies have changed over the 10 years a decent consultant can put proposals past the planners and get a good idea what would be acceptable without doing applications.

Game_Over

n1guy wrote: »

I've been made redundant a number of times now, Not like this though when an employer sells the business. The business itself is worth nothing compared the site it's on, it was worth 2 million 10 years ago so god knows how much it would be worth now.

Since the start of the year, there have been several building contractor type guys in and today what looked like an estate agent valuing the place.

My boss is 62 and the site is his retirement nest egg. Roughly how long does this type of thing take? Is it a quick thing or is it drawn out over 2-3 years type of thing

n1guy wrote: »

Planning portal was a great idea, had a search, they tried selling 10 years ago, application put in by a building contractor, it's was declined, someone objected. So surly this means before they sell it if they are information will appear on there first?

Who valued the land at £2m 10 years ago, if there was no planning permission for redevelopment, let alone a positive rejection? :huh:

Sounds a bit rich to me, unless this land is the size of Wales (or the size of a shoebox if in central London). Even then sounds rich if any redevelopment is objected to.

n1guy

Game_Over wrote: »

Who valued the land at £2m 10 years ago, if there was no planning permission for redevelopment, let alone a positive rejection? :huh:

Sounds a bit rich to me, unless this land is the size of Wales (or the size of a shoebox if in central London). Even then sounds rich if any redevelopment is objected to.

We're just going by rumors. It is a massive area all the same, a 5 min walk from the town centre. You could easily fit 2 Tesco superstores on the land.

lisyloo

Who knows many variables with the planning one being a major variable.

How long have you been there?
Would you be entitled to a large redundancy package?
Is it contractually better than statutory?

Your choices are basically start looking now at your leisure for another job a and move at your leisure without redundancy or move at a time of the businesses choosing with the redundancy.

There are a number of variables in that decision, but often how big the package is can be a major one.

I was made redundant after 16.5 years.
The money would have lasted me 6 months.
I wasn’t after the money per se, but the security of the 6 months, so I waited.
One observation I made is that it’s not easy to cut your living costs at short notice. For example there will be bills like car MOT, insurance etc. Where you haven’t had a chance to alter your lifestyle. I guess you could make drastic changes but if you are expecting to get a similar job then you don’t want to start changing your car/house so your living costs remain the same. I thought I could rein it in a bit but you can’t if your keeping the same house/car and essentially lifestyle.

warby68

Is there a reason you can't talk to the boss and ask what's going on?

If he is thinking of going for planning again or a developer is taking an option subject to planning for example, it could be months to years. Is he just getting ducks in a row for retirement at a certain age?

Is the site intrinsic to the business? He might not be selling the business at all but closing it down and selling the site. The closure may then come at a completely different time to the land sale.

Disjoint

If the site is large in the centre of town or very near it - a developer could buy it pre-planning. It's a higher risk, but they'll get an idea from the consultants as to what they can do.
On the other hand, at the moment warehouses and light industrial is all the rage. If this is what is already in place they wouldn't even need to convert the land to anything and just use it as is.

Bottom line - extremely hard to tell unless I know the site etc... Or what the developers are thinking. As others have suggested, start planning just in case?

n1guy

Thanks for all the advice folks, I'll keep an eye out in the meantime.

jonnygee2

The business itself is worth nothing compared the site it's on, it was worth 2 million 10 years ago so god knows how much it would be worth now.

This isn't really how it works. The business and the property are two different things. The business will sell the property on, after that it will simply either move to a new location, or just close down.

Property developers are not going to buy the business, and business people are unlikely to buy the property for development.

This is relevant to you because your job obviously belongs to the business and not to the property. Closing the business down will probably take some time (communicating to suppliers, employees etc). Selling it could be very quick depending on the buyer, but of course if the business is sold you might keep your job.