Are you planning to step back and want your business to continue with care? As an investor, 3M Invest can help think through an ownership transfer built around continuity, the roles of everyone involved and a suitable transition.
Discuss your succession questionOwner-directors who want to transfer all or part of their stake.
Entrepreneurs without an obvious successor in the family or among the shareholders.
Businesses where continuity for employees, customers and partners matters greatly.
Looking to acquire another business yourself? Read about growth through acquisition.
Succession is about more than selling shares. It helps to treat ownership and day-to-day leadership as two separate questions.
Who becomes (co-)owner of the business? This concerns the transfer of shares, control and the agreements between shareholders.
Who runs the business day to day? That could be the existing management, a new director or, for a while, you. This question is separate from ownership and needs its own answer.
Will you stay involved for a while, for example as a shareholder, adviser or director? A gradual transition can support continuity, but depends on what you and the other parties want.
A partial transfer is different from a full sale and calls for different agreements on control and collaboration.
We discuss your situation, your wishes and the role of management and others involved.
Together we assess whether the business and its needs fit our approach.
If there is a fit, due diligence follows, along with agreements on structure, control and the transition.
After completion we work together on continuity and the next stage, in line with the agreements made.
The timeline varies by process and depends on factors such as complexity, due diligence and the transaction structure. We discuss the expected timing during our first exploratory conversation.
Briefly share your situation. We will explore whether a collaboration could be a good fit.
Discuss your succession question