There are two possibilities here, either management will attempt to acquire all the equity with their own money or, more likely, with traditional bank finance; or if the buy-out is an EPO, a specialist EPO financier will provide both equity and debt support. To prepare your company for this type of buy-out you need to be aware of the following:
Where the management is buying your business without any borrowings, the central issue is whether the business is attractive enough for them to offer you your asking price. In these circumstances, the transaction is more like a trade sale than a management buy-out.
Where the management is putting up some of the purchase price only and is borrowing the rest, the business will still need to comply with the traditional MBO, because the business assets will be security for the borrowings. This is very important because, from my experience, most management/employee buy-outs that fail do so because they are unable to acquire the finance they need.
