Finder’s Fee Agreement (Sale of Business)

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This Finder’s Fee Agreement (Sale of Business) enables the owner of a business, whether a company or sole trader, to appoint a "finder”. A “finder” is an intermediary business broker engaged by a business owner to locate and introduce one or more potential buyers of the business.

If an introduction to a potential buyer is then made and it proceeds to buy the business, the finder becomes entitled to a commission (the “finder’s fee”) payable by the business owner in return for that successful introduction.

This template document sets out in detail the terms of the appointment of the finder. These terms are fairly even-handed in the way in which they protect and clarify the position of both the business owner and the finder. This form of agreement is therefore suitable for engaging a finder where either:

· an owner is selling its business and is appointing a finder of a buyer for that purpose; or

· a business whose function is to act as a finder of buyers for businesses. It can use this form as its own standard terms of business when being appointed as a finder.

However, certain provisions in the template are slightly slanted towards the finder so that it is particularly suited to being used by a finder as its standard appointment document.

This form of agreement can be used for appointment of a finder on an exclusive basis, i.e. where the business owner is willing to appoint only one finder to act for it. It can instead be used for a non-exclusive appointment, i.e. where the owner is to have the freedom to appoint one or more other intermediaries in addition to the finder. By selecting one of the alternative sets of wording in the form, you can easily make the appointment either exclusive or non-exclusive.

This template also contains some optional provisions for inclusion where the owner engages the finder not only to find a purchaser in return for the finder’s fee commission, but also where the owner wishes to put the finder on a monthly retainer fee in addition to the finder’s commission: the retainer is payable in return for the finder providing additional services (e.g. help with negotiation) to ease the path to a successful sale of the business.

There are provisions in the template covering alternative means of setting the amount of commission payable, advertising by the finder, expenses, confidentiality, anti-bribery, data processing, details of the assets comprising the business to be sold and other useful clauses.

If the finder is instead to act for a potential buyer of a business to identify and introduce an owner of a business with a view to them selling that business to the buyer, please see the accompanying Finder's Fee Agreement (Purchase of Business) in this subfolder.

Optional phrases / clauses are enclosed in square brackets. These should be read carefully and selected so as to be compatible with one another. Unused options should be removed from the document.

This Finder’s Fee Agreement (Sale of Business) is in open format. Either enter the requisite details in the highlighted fields or adjust the wording to suit your purposes.

This Finder's Fee Agreement (Sale of Business) can also be found in the Other Asset Sale Documents subfolder in the Corporate Folder. 

If it is not the business or assets of a company or sole trader which is to be sold, but instead all of the shares, an alternative version of this form of agreement (the Finder's Fee Agreement (Sale of Shares)) is available in the Corporate Folder in the Other Share Sale Documents subfolder. That template can be used where all of the shareholders of a company are looking to sell all of their shares to one or more outside buyer/s. 

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Finder’s Fee Agreement (Sale of Business) is part of Business Documents. Just £35.00 + VAT provides unlimited downloads from Business Documents for 1 year.