Sale & Purchase Agreement (SPA) Advisory

Maximize value on your deal

In any transaction, a significant proportion of deal value can be won or lost through SPA negotiation. We can assist you and your advisers to derive optimum value from a Sales and Purchase Agreement.

Our dedicated SPA team provides expert support at all stages of a transaction from pre-deal work through to post-completion support.

Pre-deal, the team assists in the identification and articulation of value issues related to pricing and deal completion mechanics, to assist clients in their SPA negotiations; Post-deal the team assists clients in protecting or generating value through the execution of the SPA completion mechanism.

Every business is different and every deal is different: we tailor our work to address your key concerns and commercial objectives.

Taking advantage of our SPA expertise

Whatever your stage in the transaction cycle, we can provide expert advice to help you identify the best option for your situation.

Typical considerations:

you are contemplating the disposal of a business and wish to consider the relative merits of ‘locked box’ and other completion mechanisms
you are making a disposal and wish to guard against price erosion by exploring options for potential price adjustments and post-completion mechanisms
you are making an acquisition and wish to ensure that potential ‘debt-like’ items and other financial risks have been identified and appropriately addressed within the SPA
your transaction includes completion accounts or other post-completion price adjustment (e.g. an earn-out) and you wish to position the adjustment statement to your advantage and to minimise the opposing party's potential to manipulate price.

How we can help you

We can assist you and your advisers to derive optimum value from a Sales and Purchase Agreement, including with respect to:

the adjustments to be made between Enterprise Value and Equity Value and in formulating the arguments and counter-arguments required to justify your proposed approach
determination of the appropriate financial benchmarks (or appropriate adjustments to price in the case of a 'locked box' mechanism) for the purposes of price negotiation and drafting the SPA
analysis of the working capital requirements of the target business to determine the normalised working capital for the purposes of your negotiation of the SPA
working with your financial due diligence team to mitigate risks identified during the due diligence phase
negotiating the accounting aspects of the SPA, including aspects such as the pricing mechanism, relevant representations and warranties and any dispute resolution mechanisms related to the purchase price adjustment; and
preparing, reviewing or disputing completion accounts or other financial adjustments.

Local and international SPA experience

Our SPA team provides practical, commercial advice to maximise value to clients taking advantage of PwC's global reach and experience, providing advice on over 300 SPAs each year globally. We operate across a range of industries and deal sizes, working closely with the core diligence (transaction services), tax and M&A teams.

PwC is the only firm in New Zealand with a specialist, dedicated team advising clients on the negotiation, drafting and execution of the financial aspects of SPAs. Our team is at the leading edge of current market developments in the constantly evolving SPA arena.

Contact us

Russell Windsor

Partner, PwC New Zealand

Tel: +64 21 498 060

Angela Gatward

Partner, Sale and Purchase Agreement (SPA) Advisory, PwC New Zealand

Tel: +64 21 087 52614

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