The first step of an Employee Ownership Trust set up is to carry out a careful initial review of your personal and business objectives and consider the relative merits of an EOT compared to a trade sale or management buy-out.
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From there, a feasibility study usually takes place to ensure the likely valuation range, and timing of cash receipts from the sale, are clear.
Next, careful consideration must be put towards structure, including the implications of retained shareholdings, minority share holdings/share options for senior management and the terms of the deferred consideration.
It is also extremely important to ensure debt and deferred consideration repayments are structured to ensure the future working capital and investment requirements of the business can be met, enabling the business to flourish post transaction.