Stratfield in Zwolle: Werken aan waarde voor aandeelhouders

Love letter as letter of intent

What is the best moment to sell your business? And to what extent can you still exercise any influence on its value? At Stratfield, we see the sale of a business as a strategic matter. It is not the transaction, but the interests of the business owner that must have first priority. But aren’t any feelings involved? There certainly are. Sometimes, an awful lot.

The challenge
A business owner has been trying to sell his shares to his MT for years. Yet the MT backs out at the last minute. The business owner asks Stratfield if we would like to help him sell the business.

‘By not focusing on the transaction, but rather on the interests of the business owner, we create more value.’

Our approach
In this particular case, we did begin with a value assessment of the business. After making a critical analysis of the company, we concluded that perhaps this wasn’t the right time to sell. We thought there were still some matters that required attention. If the business owner were to take the appropriate action, then his company would be considerably more valuable. The business owner took our advice to heart and set to work full of determination. He hived off an overseas activity and vigorously rolled out a new concept with a great deal of potential. After two years, the business owner and Stratfield put the business on the market again. We set up an all-out communication campaign for this purpose. Part of the campaign involved a company film in which we highlighted the uniqueness of the business. It was the express wish of the business owner that the company should remain in existence in its entirety and that there was a job guarantee for his employees. For this reason, we asked interested parties to set out in a (love) letter how they saw the future of the business together. The result? The business came into the hands of the right buyer, the employees were assured of their jobs and the business owner was pleased with the higher proceeds. The process may well have lasted longer than usual, but there’s no disputing the results.

We focus on value

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