Start with a current succession plan
Business.gov.au says succession planning helps transfer a business when an owner retires or leaves. Its guidance recommends choosing the right successor, valuing the business, documenting processes, planning for sudden transition, and reviewing the plan regularly.
Define financial and non-financial goals, owner timing, leadership requirements, family expectations, employee and customer priorities, funding capacity, and contingency arrangements before choosing a path.
Common succession paths
- Family succession: ownership, management, or both move to family members.
- Management or employee ownership: existing leaders or employees acquire part or all of the business.
- Trade sale: a competitor, supplier, customer, or adjacent operator acquires the business.
- Financial sponsor: a private equity or other investment vehicle acquires an interest, sometimes with retained owner or management equity.
- Permanent holding company: a long-term owner acquires without a planned resale under its stated model.
- Orderly closure or asset realisation: operations stop and assets, contracts, registrations, property, and obligations are dealt with separately.
Labels do not determine price, speed, employee outcomes, operating model, or certainty. Test the actual proposal, funding, incentives, documents, and evidence.
Compare options using the same questions
| Question | What to establish |
|---|---|
| Leadership | who can run the business, required development, authority, and remaining owner dependence |
| Funding | purchase or transition capital, security, repayments, guarantees, and who carries risk |
| Ownership | future control, governance, liquidity, resale assumptions, and decision rights |
| People and operations | employer, management, brand, locations, systems, customers, suppliers, and investment |
| Seller role | exit, handover, consulting, employment, directorship, retained equity, vendor finance, or earn-out |
| Economics | cash, debt, working capital, tax, costs, deferred amounts, conditions, and retained risk |
| Execution | information, valuation, approvals, consents, employee process, documentation, and contingency plan |
Family, management, and employee succession
Family succession can preserve continuity, but willingness, capability, ownership economics, governance, and fairness should be established rather than assumed. Management or employees may know the business well, but funding can require external debt, retained seller equity, staged payments, or vendor finance.
- who wants and is able to lead, own, or work in the business
- how capability will be assessed and developed
- how ownership is valued, funded, transferred, and governed
- how family members or employees not participating are treated
- what income, security, role, and risk remain with the outgoing owner
- what happens if leadership, funding, or repayment falls short
External sale options
A trade buyer may value customers, capabilities, people, assets, suppliers, or geography. A financial sponsor may propose full, majority, or minority ownership with different debt, governance, retained equity, and liquidity assumptions. A permanent holding company states an intention not to resell under its ownership model.
Do not infer outcomes from the label. Ask every buyer for ownership, funding, approvals, conditions, operating plans, employee approach, seller obligations, references, and future ownership assumptions. Apply the Australian buyer scorecard.
PermaTech's stated model is permanent ownership of established Australian and New Zealand industrial and commercial businesses with decentralised operations. Sellers should still verify how that model applies to the proposed transaction.
Closure is a regulated path, not an absence of planning
Business.gov.au separates selling from closing and lists employee, tax, registration, licence, lease, and transfer obligations. Closure can be appropriate in some circumstances, but it may affect employees, customers, suppliers, creditors, property, tax, regulators, and company status.
Obtain Australian legal, tax, employment, insolvency, estate-planning, and financial advice appropriate to the circumstances before committing to closure or asset realisation.
Choose and maintain the path
- Write down financial and non-financial goals.
- Assess successor capability, willingness, and funding honestly.
- Prepare current information, valuation evidence, and owner-dependence records.
- Model legal, tax, employment, funding, estate, and cash-flow consequences.
- Compare complete proposals and verify references.
- Document governance, transition, decision rights, and contingencies.
- Review the plan when the business, owner, family, management, or market changes.
Use the Australian owner-transition guide to turn the selected path into defined actions and evidence.