Back to the Future for dentists

There is a need for practice principals to consider selling their practice years in advance of the planned retirement date. One of the main reasons for this is that the purchaser may require the former-principal to stay on for a period of time post-sale, which could be anything up to several years, depending on the purchaser.

In Scotland, in addition to associates looking to buy their first practice (often backed by bank debt) there are a growing number of well-funded small privately owned groups of practices as well as larger corporate groups who are actively looking to acquire good profitable NHS, private and mixed practices.

The banks’ appetite to lend in the healthcare sector remains strong, and with additional private equity investment into the Scottish market, there are now more options and therefore more opportunities than ever to sell your practice and maximise the value of your investment.

Choosing the right advisor to support you through this process is crucial. The benefit of choosing a commercially-focused Corporate Finance advisor to advise you on the sale of your practice is that they will understand the real value of you practice and negotiate the best outcome on your behalf.

Also, having access to specialist tax advice when selling a practice is just as important to ensure that the deal is structure in a way that maximises tax reliefs available. At AAB we have specialist tax advisors with experience in buying and selling businesses who will work as part of the advisory team.

For those principals not yet planning the sale of their practice, what you can consider now is whether your existing advisors have the experience to support you through this process in the future and consider making contact with those who do.

For more information, please don’t hesitate to contact us.