The Exit Toolkit · Sheet 17 of 20
Alternatives to selling
When a sale isn't the answer (yet)
Management buy-out (MBO)
Your management team buys the company, often funded over time by you as seller or from company cash. You get paid out over several years; they get the business they helped build.
Employee Ownership Trust (EOT)
Sell a controlling stake to a trust for your employees. Done properly this can be highly tax-efficient and preserves the culture, but it is a long-term payment structure, not a cash exit.
Partial share sale or restructuring
Sell some shares, convert some to loan notes, or bring in an investor. You realise part of your value while keeping a stake and a role.
Step back, don't sell
Recruit senior management, appoint a non-executive director, or get a business coach. Less time involvement without giving up ownership.
Raise finance instead
If the business just needs fuel rather than a new owner, new funding or new shares may achieve your goal.
Solvent liquidation (MVL)
If there is no buyer and no successor, a Members' Voluntary Liquidation winds the company up and distributes the value, usually as capital rather than income.
Bottom line
The right route depends entirely on why you want out and what you want your future involvement to be. Work out the 'why' first; the structure follows.
General information only, not legal advice. Steven Mather Solicitor is a trading name of Kesters Nook Limited; legal work is carried out through Nexa Law Limited, authorised and regulated by the SRA (number 633024).