Business Transfer Solicitors — Galway

Selling and buying businesses — structure, documents, consents and completion.

For sellers and buyers in Galway and across the west, a business sale is a documentary exercise governed by national law and conducted between advisers. Distance affects convenience rather than outcome — and the decisions that determine the outcome are all taken before anyone needs to meet.

Three Questions That Decide It, Wherever You Are

Has the structure been settled with your accountant? Asset or share determines the tax, which liabilities move, whether employees transfer automatically and which consents are needed, and it is very difficult to revisit once heads of terms are signed and a price agreed on assumptions that depend on it. Is the business ready to be examined? Written contracts, a lease that permits assignment, IP owned by the company, employment terms in writing, records current — this is where price is defended, because a buyer prices uncertainty. And who else can effectively veto the deal? The landlord, the bank, lessors, a franchisor and two or three large customers may each hold a consent right, and those consents set the completion timetable rather than follow it. None of those three questions has a local answer.

A Mixed Base, and the Findings It Produces

The west combines a substantial owner-managed base in agri-food, engineering, tourism and hospitality, marine and construction services with a technology and medical device cluster around the city. That produces two rather different transaction profiles. Long-established owner-managed businesses tend to arrive with the familiar findings: undocumented customer relationships, premises or equipment tangled up with the owner personally, forgotten guarantees, and genuine key-person dependency. Technology and device businesses more often arrive with the opposite problem set — intellectual property that needs to be traced and confirmed as owned by the company rather than by founders or contractors, software and licence terms that restrict assignment or contain change-of-control provisions, and customer contracts with larger counterparties that require consent. Both are preparable. Neither improves by being discovered during exclusivity.

Two Free Tools Before You Call

The Sale Structure Check walks the asset-versus-share question and what follows from each. The Readiness Check produces a gap list ordered by what will delay the deal or reduce the price. Both run on your own device — nothing stored, and neither is tax advice.

Selling, Buying, or Still Deciding?

What is being sold, whether an accountant has advised on structure, what is signed already, and whether there are employees and a lease. Conflicts are checked first, so name every party in your first email.

Call 01 5827148

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Business Sales in Galway - FAQs

Yes, almost entirely. The work is documentary — structure, contracts, the lease, the accounts, the sale agreement and disclosure — and is handled by telephone, email and video. In-person meetings are available at the Dublin or Kilkenny offices where preferred, and are usually most useful for going through a ledger of contracts or executing documents.

General information, not legal advice. This website contains general information about Irish law on business sales and acquisitions. It is not legal advice and does not create a solicitor—client relationship. Every transaction turns on its own facts — the structure, the documents, the parties, the consents required — and advice on yours requires a consultation.

Nothing here is tax advice, and tax drives structure. The choice between an asset sale and a share sale is very largely a tax question, and it should be settled with your accountant or tax adviser, and by reference to Revenue’s own guidance, before heads of terms are signed rather than afterwards. This firm does not advise on tax, does not state rates, thresholds, reliefs or conditions, and does not indicate any tax outcome.

No valuation advice. This firm does not value businesses, does not suggest multiples and does not advise on price. Valuation is for accountants and corporate finance advisers, and it is a separate exercise from the legal work.

Never both sides of the same deal. The firm acts for buyers and, in separate transactions, for sellers — but never for both parties to the same sale. Conflicts are checked at first contact, before any substantive discussion, which is why the first email should name every individual and entity involved.

No outcome or timeline is promised. Nothing on this site states or implies that a transaction will complete, that a consent will be obtained, that a warranty claim will succeed, or that any deal will proceed to a particular timetable. Where another jurisdiction is involved, the law of that jurisdiction applies to what happens there and requires local advice; this firm advises on Irish law only.

Fees. Fees are agreed in writing with the client at the outset. In contentious business, a solicitor may not calculate fees or other charges as a percentage or proportion of any award or settlement.