Information for sellers
Sellers outside the United Kingdom should see ‘Schools
worldwide’
To sell your school or nursery through National
SchoolTransfer (NST) we ask you, first of all, to register with us. This entails:
STAGE 1 – REGISTRATION
- Please contact us initially by telephone or email
and Patrick Carter will be happy to have a chat with you. We will then
send you our standard Registration Form (which asks for general details
of your school). Then post it to us with a copy of your school prospectus.
- We also ask you to send us your most recently produced ‘Profit
and Loss Sheet’ from your accounts. This is necessary as we use these
accounts to calculate ‘Operating Profit’ – a term for which
we have our own specific definition. This Operating Profit figure enables
our buyers to compare like-with-like when they read our assessments, and
it is used in calculating ‘Goodwill’.
- Once we have received the
above information we will contact you in order to arrange to visit your
school.
STAGE 2 – WE VISIT YOU
- The visit to your school to prepare the marketing
assessment will then be made by Pat Carter and Andrew McEwen. All have a wide experience
in education generally and specifically in assessing schools for sale… and will
treat the visit with utmost discretion.
- The visit is arranged for
a time that suits you – either
during or out of school hours and, if the former, it might be as a prospective
parent,
a surveyor or similar. It is worth stressing that in ALL our dealings with
you, the seller, we will deal only with you directly. We are always aware of
the absolute need for confidentiality and our procedures are based on long
experience in delivering it.
- From this visit we will prepare the draft marketing
assessment.
- There is no charge for this visit to the school.
STAGE 3 – THE ASSESSMENT
- From the information gained on our visit, together
with your registration form, prospectus and ‘Profit and Loss Sheet’ we prepare a draft ‘Assessment’.
- The Assessment (a two page document) provides buyers
with sufficient marketing information to decide whether or not they wish
to
visit your school.
It is written in such a way as to conceal your school’s identity.
- Once
we have drafted the Assessment we send it to you to agree or amend
it.
STAGE 4 – TARGETING BUYERS
- Once you have agreed the text of the Assessment we
add your school’s
details to our ‘Outline List’ (a list of all schools, nurseries
etc, that are on our books for transfer). The Outline List is available to
all buyers who have completed our registration process and have therefore
signed a Confidentiality Agreement. We have on our books about 350 buyers
who have
completed our registration procedure.
- We can immediately match your school’s details
against our database of registered buyers. We send a copy of the Assessment
to all those
buyers whose declared interests (location, type of school, price range, etc)
match your school’s details.
- If, after reading the Assessment, buyers
think your school may be what they are looking for, we will arrange for
them to
visit you.
STAGE 5 – BUYERS VISIT YOUR SCHOOL
- A buyer who has read your Assessment may want
to visit your school and Patrick would telephone you to agree the details
of a visit. He will give you
some information about the buyer and negotiate convenient times for the visit
between you and the buyer. It is only at this point that we would disclose
the name and exact location of your school to the potential buyer.
- Once the
visit date is agreed we ask the buyer to telephone you so that, between you,
you can ‘fine tune’ the details
of the visit… directions
and (if during school hours) what will be the ostensible reason for their visit.
- Many
sellers find it reassuring that we do not give out to a buyer any detailed
financial information until after a
visit has been made and the
buyer is still showing an interest.
STAGE 6 – OUR AIM… A SUCCESSFUL SALE!
- If, after the visit, the buyer is keen to pursue
the purchase and you are happy for them to do so, we send them financial
information
to support
our assessment. They might wish to arrange a second visit – perhaps
during school hours if their first visit was out-of-hours. Confidentiality
is still
maintained at this crucial stage.
- Sometimes negotiations
towards a sale can encounter difficulties. Legal and property matters
can often prove daunting and Pat
is always on hand
to assist and advise. Past sellers have told us that our sensible advice
and our ability to act as a go-between has been an essential element in
producing
the successful outcome… a sale!
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North Western France- Language/Activity Centre €750,000 Freehold Empty Premises
Southern Spain - Primary & Secondary School €850,000 Leasehold
Greater London - Pre Prep & Prep £850,000 Freehold
The Midlands - Pre Prep & Prep £295,000 Leasehold
