Buying a Small Business in the UK - A Quick Reference Guide

property value (bought with the owner's profit) far exceeds the value of the cash flow being created. In this case, a common approach is to determine the market rent value and also the market value of the property generally through a survey (often 2 or 3). The rent would then be subtracted from EBITDA rolling through to a lower valuation but then the property value would be added back into the valuation. Another way to visualise this is if the property was not part of operations at all but a pure investment and was staying in the business it would clearly be the owner’s profit that would be in addition to any goodwill value. Part of the contract package at closing would include a long-term lease on the property to the Seller’s company.

Additional Considerations

Property often has a mortgage attached to it. So it is important that these calculations are done net of the mortgage of course as this is the actual Seller equity in the property. Often the mortgage can be used as part of the debt financing package for the business. If there is no mortgage, generally the Buyer can get quite a large loan against the property (i.e. 75%) if it is staying in the business and this becomes part of the funding package. There can be other issues with a property that need to be considered like any liens that might exist, government mandates that might be due/coming in the future, changes in the tax regime and/or zoning, etc.

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