Business Sales & Acquisitions Anywhere in Ireland

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

You do not need a solicitor near you for this. A business sale is national law, conducted between advisers on the documents — and everything that determines the outcome is settled before anyone needs to be in the same room.

What Decides the Outcome Is Not Where Anyone Sits

The structure, settled with your accountant on the tax before heads of terms, because it determines the tax treatment, which liabilities move, whether employees transfer automatically and which consents are needed — and because it is very difficult to revisit once a price has been agreed on assumptions that depend on it. The readiness of the business, because a buyer prices uncertainty: written contracts, a lease that permits assignment, IP owned by the company rather than an individual, employment terms in writing, records current, and personal guarantees identified. The consents, identified at the outset because they set the completion timetable rather than following it. And the disclosure letter, which defines what a seller is actually exposed to after completion and is routinely left to the last week. None of those has a local answer, and all of them are handled on the documents.

What to Assess in Any Adviser

Four things. Will they settle the structure with your accountant before heads of terms, or simply paper whatever structure appears in them? A solicitor who drafts around an unchecked structure is not serving the client. Will they tell you what a buyer’s solicitor is going to find, before the buyer finds it — and be honest that most of it is fixable in advance and expensive to concede afterwards? Do they raise the items sellers forget without being prompted: release from personal guarantees, continuing liability under an assigned lease, what survives completion? And do they treat the disclosure letter as the seller’s protection rather than an annex to be finished on Thursday? Alongside that, a fifth question worth asking of any firm: do they act for both sides of the same deal? This one does not, ever, and conflicts are checked before any substantive discussion.

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 Ireland - FAQs

Substantially, yes. The work is documentary — structure, contracts, the lease, accounts, the sale agreement and disclosure — and is conducted between advisers by email, telephone and video. In-person meetings are available at the Dublin or Kilkenny offices and are usually most useful for going through a contract file, the guarantee schedule, 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.