Employee ownership

Baker Tilly works with many privately owned and managed businesses across the UK. We know from experience that management and ownership succession are of particular importance and deciding on a suitable strategy to adopt is often the most significant decision a business owner will make.

Transition to employee ownership: Why do it?

In our experience and talking to business owners who have gone down this route, there are a number of benefits to moving to an employee ownership structure:

• a financially acceptable exit can be achieved for those business owners whilst allowing them at the same time to leave a proud legacy behind
• employees gain a measure of empowerment, a greater sense of security and more closely align themselves to the well-being of the business
• business owners discover a desirable exit path that they may not previously have considered
• a qualitative, altruistic result can be achieved through giving something back to employees who helped build the business
• anecdotally, employee-owned businesses tend to outperform comparative businesses in their market place.

How can Baker Tilly help?

When considering employee ownership as a succession option, Baker Tilly, with our experience and expertise, can provide support in many different ways. We can help you:

• examine and evaluate the different strategies and models for employee ownership
• choose the e strategy and model that best aligns with stakeholder objectives
• draw up a critical path/detailed step plan for the successful transition to employee ownership of the business
• structure the transaction to take the business from current ownership to employee ownership
• raise the right type of finance to fund the transaction achieve optimal tax structuring on the transaction, helping to maximise the tax reliefs available and avoiding any unnecessary tax pitfalls.