I want to sell my half of a Ltd company but my partner does not want to buy it what are my options.

[Leslie Gaunt]

Hi, I own 50% of a successful ltd company and I am at the age were I have had enough of the hassles of running the business and would like to sell. My business partner has indicated that he doesn't want to buy my shares and I was wondering if anybody has any experience of this and any advise.

 

[Mr D]

Can you sell to someone else?

Or maybe step down from the running and simply keep the shares?

 

[STDFR33]

What's the industry, turnover, net profit, number of hours work commitment per week etc?

Generally speaking, selling half of a small company is very, very difficult.

You can retain your shareholding and receive dividends should any be declared.

 

[Gordon - Commercial Finance]

Step down as a director (which I presume you are) and keep the 50% of shares.
This means you no longer have the hassle of running the company, but can continue to collect dividends from it.
Make sure before you do this that your shareholder agreement is watertight, and you can't be diluted out of the business.

 

[Clinton]

You state that you are tired of the hassles of running a business. This suggests you're actively involved in running the business.

So I find puzzling the suggestions above that you simply step back and let your partner run it.

I suspect that this is not possible ... or very, very difficult to achieve (as your presence is critical to the continued success of the business).

You can't just up and leave whenever you want without it having a severe effect on your business partner's life. You want him to take over all the hassles you currently manage and add them to the hassles he already handles?

Why should he agree to buy you out at all? You have the problem - ie wanting to get rid of your hassles - and you want him to agree to relieve you of your problem? Further, you want him to pay you for the privilege?

What does your shareholder agreement say about departure of a partner?

 

[ADW]

Do you have employees and are any of them capable of stepping into your shoes to fulfil your duties? If you have 100 staff and a few good potential options of covering your role then it might be worth quite a bit to a potential purchaser. If it is just you and your business partner then you will be hard pushed to find anyone willing to part with their cash.

Without much more info you are only going to get fairly broad answers rather than specific to your situation.

 

[Clinton]

If you have 100 staff

If I had to guess I'd say the OP's business has £346,800 on the balance sheet (last accounts dated 31/01/17) and had an average number of 5 employees over the last year.

Whether or not any of them can cover him, it's worth him playing this very carefully and paying for good advice to help him and his partner reach an arrangement.

There are multiple solutions, and an MBI may work well. But it takes some skill and effort to pull off solutions like these and expert assistance is generally required. These matters are best not discussed in forum threads.