BuyingACompetitor
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The costs

Acquiring a competitor: legal fees and the other costs

Updated

The costs of acquiring a competitor are the price, the legal and diligence work, and, for the few deals the CMA investigates, its fee.

Send my brief Sector, area, price range and timing. Joseph Ellul reads it himself and replies directly. Free, no obligation.

Published fees

Legal work

Rocket Lawyer UK publishes business purchase help from £500; Gannons states fees from £5,000 plus VAT to run the transaction. 27 other firms read quote per deal.

Source: UK Acquisition Adviser Fee Index

Stamp duty

Buying the competitor's shares by stock transfer form carries stamp duty at 0.5% of the price.

Source: GOV.UK: tax when you buy shares

Tell us what you want to buy

Sector, area, price range and timing. Joseph Ellul reads it himself and replies directly. Free, no obligation.

What you want to buy

A town, a region or anywhere: it is the first filter on any search.

Share purchase or asset purchase?

It changes the tax, the diligence and who takes on the liabilities. Not sure is a fine answer.

  • Free, and no obligation
  • Read and answered by Joseph Ellul himself; no firm receives it
  • Information only: no tax, legal or investment advice

Sources

This site's own datasets, every figure quoted from its source and dated:

  1. How to pay merger investigation fees
  2. How to pay merger investigation fees
  3. Mergers: guidance on jurisdiction and procedure
  4. Tell the CMA about your merger
  5. Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024
  6. Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024
  7. The Enterprise Act 2002 (Merger Fees and Determination of Turnover) Order 2003
  8. Merger assessment guidelines

Tell us what you want to buy.

Sector, area, price range and timing. Joseph Ellul reads it himself and replies directly. Free, no obligation.

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