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Selling your company to its employees [Employee Ownership Trusts (EOTs)]

Succession continues to be major issues for privately owned businesses, particularly where a senior management team owns a majority or all of a company. This applies across industries including fast growing tech businesses where owners are able to use this route to realise the value they have created.   The traditional approach for many exiting has been trade or venture capital sale.

Employee Ownership provides an alternative that is extremely tax efficient – potentially both CGT and income tax free. It’s also usually a faster and easier transaction and has the benefit of putting in place long term stable ownership that ensures ongoing independence and a potential legacy for owners. As far as employees are concerned, with employee owned businesses there is greater involvement in the management and running of their organisation and an ability to receive tax free bonuses which together can results in a more engaged and committed workforce.   Thames Valley based Waitrose/John Lewis is one of the UK’s most widely known employee owned businesses and other well-known employee owned companies include Richer Sounds and Riverford Organic Farmers with recent additions coming from a host of sectors – including construction, architecture, recruitment, media, technology, marketing, professional services, corporate finance and manufacturing. These range from small employers with just 20 employees to over 1,800, and with turnovers from £1m to £100m plus.

Over the coming months, Doyle Clayton‘s Head of EOT Services – Garry Karch will through a series of webinars use his experience of over 150 UK/US employee ownership transactions to explain how employee ownership trusts work and the benefits of selling a company to an EOT over a trade sale or private equity. He’ll also answer any questions generally about EOTs, and why employee ownership is one of the fastest growing forms of business ownership in the UK. The first of Garry’s webinars will take place on Tuesday 7 April 11am – noon.

To book a place please follow the link https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/8670340083960641037, see our social media or get in touch with our Events team on 0118 959 6839.   https://www.linkedin.com/company/doyleclaytonworkplacelawyers   https://twitter.com/Doyle_Clayton   https://www.facebook.com/DoyleClaytonLawyers   https://www.instagram.com/workplace_lawyers

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Sarah Irving

Head of Marketing & Communications

Email: sarahirving@tvchamber.co.uk
Direct dial: 01753 870500

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