Christie & Co expands its’ dental team in the Midlands
In the last 12 months Christie & Co’s specialist team has valued or sold over 400 dental businesses across the UK with an aggregate value of over £500m.
Many of these sales were across the East and West Midlands, with a few notable highlights from smaller owner operated practices, through to high-value single assets and mid-market group activity.
To keep up with an ever-increasing number of transactions, we are delighted to announce that we are strengthening our dental team. Tom Morley, who has many years’ experience in the industry, joins us to support our Midlands based clients.
The Midlands and surrounding areas continue to be a hotspot of activity – a recent deal agreed was for a mixed income dental practice in Leicester that went unsold via a previous agent. However, after a ‘refresh’ we successfully arranged ten viewings within two weeks of going to market, which resulted in nine offers being received. After managing a competitive bidding process, an offer was accepted almost 10% above the initial guide price.
The current demand from buyers is a major catalyst for activity within the market. There are three main buyer profiles, including corporates, multiple operators and independent/first time buyers. Each purchaser type has its strengths and weaknesses, as well as different needs and demands, when looking to acquire a practice. Far too often we see sellers deal directly with a buyer, receiving unfavourable and unrealistic conditions, attached to a mediocre offer.
We understand that a seller may be concerned about staff and other peers finding out that their practice is being sold and therefore might just be tempted to just to pick up the phone directly to a couple of the local buyer groups. However, the likelihood is that the practice will be selling short of true market value! Working with an agent who acts on behalf of the seller, such as Christie & Co, eliminates any conflict of interest when speaking to a wide audience of buyers, ensuring a healthy and fair bidding process. All of this is still done on a highly confidential and controlled basis at the discretion and approval of the seller.
Practices are in demand and in the last 12 months we can report the following statistics based on sales handled by Christie & Co in the Midlands:
- 54% of practices sold to first time buyers
- 26% of practices sold to independent groups
- 20% of practices sold to corporate operators
