Business sales & brokerage
When you sell your company you want it handled confidentially, by experts, and you want the final number to reflect the years you actually put in.
To sell a business in Australia, you prepare it the way a buyer will assess it, take it confidentially to a small pool of genuinely qualified buyers, and run a competitive process that earns the right price and the right terms.
You have spent years building this, and the sale should do that work justice. Exit Advisory Group runs the whole process alongside you, with senior advisers who have done it many times, access to buyers you would never reach on your own, and complete confidentiality from the very first conversation. Below: when to start, how the process runs, and the proof.
What’s driving your decision?
If two or three of those sound like you, a confidential conversation is the low-risk way to find out where you actually stand.
Why choose us
A sale this important should be handled by someone senior from start to finish. At Exit Advisory Group you work directly with an experienced adviser who runs your deal from the first conversation through to settlement, and stays close to it the whole way.
The boutique difference
We are not a volume brokerage running thousands of listings and a call centre of junior brokers. Exit Advisory Group takes on a small number of mandates at a time, so one experienced adviser runs your sale from the first conversation to completion, backed by the credentials that carry weight with buyers, banks and courts.
Simon Bedard, Managing Director of Exit Advisory Group. Simon leads the firm’s M&A advisory practice and has led the sale of businesses across software, energy, manufacturing and professional services. He is the National Chair of the Australian Institute of Business Brokers (AIBB), a Registered Business Valuer (RBV), a Licensed Business Broker, and the author of Exit Like an Expert. He hosts the Buy Grow Sell podcast.
View Simon’s profileSimon leads a strong bench of senior M&A advisers who run these deals day to day, across valuation, value building and the sale itself. You are matched with the adviser whose sector experience fits your business, and you work with that adviser from the first conversation to completion.
The advisory bench
Mark Levitt
Principal Adviser
Brent McDonald
Senior Adviser
Rod Hore
Head of M&A, RecruitmentStaffing & Offshoring
Richard Hayward
Senior Adviser, RecruitmentStaffing & Offshoring
Matt Sykes
Principal Adviser
Mark Napper
Principal Adviser
Greg Gunther
Specialist Adviser
Tom Boadle
Senior Adviser
Proof
In over 90% of the deals Exit Advisory Group has managed, the buyer was someone the client had never heard of before the process started. Those buyers are sophisticated. They look at the quality of the business, the stability of its earnings and the story of how it was built. Reaching them is the whole point of running a proper process rather than waiting for the phone to ring.
Case study · Automotive software
An Australian automotive software business held an unsolicited $3M offer. Exit Advisory Group repositioned it against the wider second hand car wholesale market, ran a competitive process and closed at $15.5 million, five times the opening offer. Lead adviser: Mark Levitt.
Read the case study
Case study · Brooks Australia
Brooks Australia, the leading supplier of fire detection products in Australia and New Zealand, family-owned into its second generation, was sold to Ei Electronics. The offer came in almost 45% above initial valuation estimates, completed ten months after going to market. Lead adviser: Simon Bedard.
Read the Brooks Australia case study
Case study · Electrical infrastructure
After an approach from one buyer, the owners of an electrical infrastructure business engaged Exit Advisory Group to test the market properly. A structured process closed the sale with a publicly listed industry player in just over 90 days.
Read the case studyMore outcomes across software, energy, manufacturing and professional services are in our client case studies.
Simon Bedard and the Exit Advisory Group team did a brilliant job assisting me in the sale of my consulting business. I couldn't be happier with the result, delivered through their depth of understanding, and complete professionalism throughout.
Paul NelsonFounder & MD, Fuller Brand CommunicationsWe worked closely with Mark Levitt, a Principal Adviser at Exit Advisory Group. He was fantastic and really took the time to understand our business. Exit Advisory Group has an efficient process and was able to put our business in front of very targeted strategic acquirers. I would highly recommend them to anyone looking to exit their business.
Samantha LamondCEO, Energy360Simon assisted in the sale of my business to a long-term employee in 2023, mentoring both of us through the process. It was a completely new experience, and I was so glad he had been recommended to us. He reassured us that the challenges we faced were completely normal, made really helpful suggestions on lawyers and other advisers, and last but not least helped me retain my sense of humour throughout.
The process
A good sale is a managed process, not a listing. Here is how we run it, and what we need from you at each stage.
We assess the business the way a buyer will, agree a realistic value range, and set the timeline and the terms worth aiming for. Everything is confidential from the first conversation.
Before we approach a single buyer, we document the business properly: financials, contracts, IP and structure, organised and internally reviewed. A negotiation is won in the research phase, and this step means there are no hidden surprises for a buyer to find later.
We get the business sale-ready and build the information memorandum: the evidence-based story of its value, its earnings and its growth.
We approach a defined pool of qualified strategic and financial buyers under confidentiality, not whoever happens to be browsing a listing. This is where the buyers you would never reach alone come into the process.
We qualify each party, release sensitive information in stages, and run a structured process so genuine competition works in your favour.
We manage the offers so you negotiate from a position of strength, with the terms protecting your outcome, not just the headline price.
We work through the structure of the deal, earn-outs, warranties and transition arrangements, so the agreement protects you well beyond settlement day.
We manage the buyer's due diligence and settlement through to completion, keeping the deal on track and your interests protected.
Most sales run six to twelve months from launch to settlement. Preparation before you go to market, including the data room, often makes the biggest difference to both speed and price.
What you get
What that gives you
A private, no-pressure conversation with a senior adviser. Not a sales pitch. We talk through your situation, what your business could be worth, and the right next step. Everything you share stays strictly confidential.
Request a confidential, no-obligation appraisalConfidential · No obligation · You deal directly with a principal
Every conversation is strictly confidential. There is no obligation and no pressure. You work directly with the adviser who runs your deal, and sensitive information is only ever released to qualified buyers, in stages, once you are ready.
Common questions
Still have questions? Talk to an adviser on a confidential call.
A well-prepared sale typically takes six to twelve months from launch to settlement, depending on the size and complexity of the business and market conditions. Preparation before going to market, including the data room, often makes the biggest difference to both speed and price. Some strategically clean deals move faster; one of our electrical infrastructure sales closed in just over 90 days.
We approach buyers under confidentiality agreements and release sensitive information in stages, so staff, customers and competitors are not alerted before you are ready. Confidentiality is set from the first conversation, not bolted on later. It is central to how we run every process.
We map the strategic and financial buyers who would value your business most, then approach them under confidentiality rather than waiting for inbound interest. Each party is qualified before any sensitive information is shared. In over 90% of the deals we have managed, the eventual buyer was someone the client had never heard of before the process started.
Eight stages: a confidential appraisal and strategy, an internal data room and due diligence, preparation and positioning, targeted buyer outreach, buyer vetting and competitive tension, negotiation of offers and terms, deal structuring, then due diligence and completion. You work with one experienced adviser throughout. The full step-by-step is set out above.
Simon Bedard, who leads the practice, is a Registered Business Valuer, a Licensed Business Broker and the National Chair of the Australian Institute of Business Brokers. He works alongside a team of senior M&A advisers, and you are matched with the one whose sector experience fits your business. Where a valuation underpins the sale, it is prepared in accordance with the International Valuation Standards (IVS).
No. We start by assessing the business the way a buyer will, agree a realistic value range, then run a competitive process so serious buyers compete on both price and terms. That structure, rather than a single early offer, is what protects your final result. The Brooks Australia sale came in almost 45% above initial valuation estimates.
Fees are set to the size and scope of the engagement, and we walk you through exactly how they work in your first confidential conversation. There are no surprises, and no cost to have that conversation.
Looking to buy a business? Register your buyer preferences and we will match you to current and upcoming opportunities.
Register your buyer preferencesA no-obligation conversation with an experienced adviser. We will talk through your situation, what your business could be worth, and the right next step. Everything you share is strictly confidential.
