A lot of overseas buyers are actively looking to buy a business in Australia. If selling yours could be on the cards down the track, it’s worth understanding what these buyers want, and why deals with them tend to complete so smoothly.
Who’s actually looking
Most of our overseas buyers are from New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, the UAE, and Korea. Their enquiries come to us, and we help them out. Australia appeals to them for good reason: a stable economy, rule of law, and a dollar that works in their favour. Most are after a business with a solid management team already running the day-to-day, because they’ll oversee it from afar and visit perhaps only a few times a year. Often they’ll promote someone from the existing team into the owner’s role and keep things ticking along nicely. Others are after something smaller and more hands-on. That’s common when they’re helping an Australian-based family member settle in, say a son or daughter who has been studying here at university. We deal with these enquiries daily at Finn Business Sales, so we see the pattern up close.
Why these deals tend to go smoothly
One thing that surprises people is that overseas buyers generally pay the same as a local buyer would. There’s no premium and no discount. What’s different is how the deal gets done. Most are buying with their own cash, so they aren’t waiting on a local bank to approve a business loan. That takes one of the biggest handbrakes off a transaction. Finance is where plenty of local deals slow down or fall over, and when that’s off the table the process tends to move cleanly from offer through to settlement. For an owner, that often means a smoother sale, fewer conditions, and far less chance of a buyer walking away at the last minute because their lending didn’t come through.
Worth thinking about now
So if selling your business is anywhere on the radar, even a year or two out, there’s a good case for getting ahead of the curve. Here’s what I’d suggest:
- Consider getting it quietly on the market, so overseas buyers actually know it’s available.
- Keep your financials clean and current, so a buyer can get comfortable quickly.
- Have a clear picture of how someone in your management team could step-up, or what is needed so the business could run without you at the wheel. (It might not run as well, but that’s for the new owner to solve, and that’s normal.)
A lot of owners hold back because they’re worried about staff, customers or competitors finding out. That’s easily covered. A professional business sales company knows how to take a business to market without ever disclosing its identity publicly. Almost every owner wants it kept under wraps, and that’s completely normal for us. With more than 600 businesses for sale right now and buyers arriving daily from overseas, the owners who do well are simply the ones who let the right buyers know they exist.
Would you like to be in a position where an overseas buyer who’s interested doesn’t pass you by? And would you even know if the right overseas buyer was looking for something like yours right now?
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