Peter Wilmer and Jack Ware, members of the Hawsons Corporate Finance team, acted as lead advisors for TMS Europe Limited’s (“TMS”) transition into employee ownership. Ryan Fitzpatrick from Shakespeare Martineau LLP provided legal advice on the transaction.
TMS Europe Ltd provide calibration services both on and off-site. Their laboratory is ISO17025 UKAS accredited for Temperature, Infrared, Humidity, Dew Point, Electrical, Pressure and Time. The company was founded in 1991 and are located in the heart of the peak district in Hope Valley.
When considering their exit strategy, the selling shareholders decided that their preferred option was to sell the majority of their shares to an Employee Ownership Trust. Following this, representatives from TMS reached out to the Hawsons Corporate Finance team and engaged us as lead advisers on the transaction.
Kathryn Price, Finance Director at TMS, commented ‘We are delighted that TMS has completed the transition into an Employee Ownership Trust. We are excited to move forward in this new ownership structure and to give our employees the opportunity to take more ownership and responsibility for the future of TMS’.
‘The Corporate Finance team at Hawsons provided an excellent service and were always available to provide their guidance through the entire transition process.’
Hawsons Corporate Finance role during the transaction was to project manage the entire process, which included the following:
Independent Valuation – We prepared an independent valuation of the company determining the fair market value of the company.
Deal Structuring – We assisted in structuring the deal, including the use of financial forecasts to determine a suitable repayment period for any deferred consideration.
Tax Clearance – We obtained advance tax clearance from HMRC to gain comfort on specific tax areas of the transaction.
Legal Process – Working in tandem with the chosen lawyers (Ryan Fitzpatrick from Shakespeare Martineau LLP) to provide a seamless service, we assisted in reviewing the legal documentation, ensuring the tax position was not compromised.
Related content
Hi-Tech Automation – 12 months into Employee Ownership
Employee Ownership is where the whole or part of a Company is owned by, or on behalf of, its employees. The government introduced some new and relatively generous tax reliefs for employee-owned companies in 2014 and since then Employee Ownership Trusts (“EOTs”) have...
Employee ownership trust problems
In this article, we are going to outline some of the problems that might arise if the transition to employee ownership is not managed and advised on correctly.Valuation of the company When selling your business to an EOT it is very important that you keep the...
Benefits of an Employee Ownership Trust
An employee ownership trust (“EOT”) is a trust that is set up to acquire shares in a trading company and holds them on behalf of the employees of the company. There are several benefits to both the employees and the sellers disposing of their shares to the trust, both...