Selling your business
What we buy
We are looking for purchase opportunities between £100k and £5m across four types of business.
Whole brokers and TPIs
Commission books
Customer portfolios
Complementary B2B businesses
What we are not looking for: businesses registered in, operated from, or trading outside the UK; domestic energy switching; businesses with unresolved regulatory findings; or books built on undisclosed commission.
Deal structures
We use three standard structures. Elements can be combined.
| Clean exit | Stay and sell | Keep the book | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What we buy | Entire share capital, or business and assets | Entire share capital | Shares, IP, brand, customer relationships and referral agreements. Your existing commission book is excluded |
| What you keep | Nothing. Full exit | A salaried role plus commission on new business | Your existing commission book, collected under a pass-through schedule |
| Price basis | Commission book plus goodwill, brand, contracts and any software or data | As clean exit, with part of the value paid through your ongoing role | Goodwill, brand, contracts, referral relationships and assets. Book valued at nil and left with you |
| Payment | Majority on completion, balance deferred around twelve months, or earn-out against agreed metrics | Majority on completion, balance deferred around twelve months | Majority on completion, balance deferred around twelve months |
| Your role | Paid handover of three to six months | Employment contract: base salary, uncapped commission, car allowance, targets agreed at heads of terms | Optional |
| Your staff | Transfer to Tritility | Transfer to Tritility | Transfer to Tritility |
| Non-compete | Two to three years, UK non-domestic energy | Term of employment plus twelve months | Two to three years, excluding collection of your retained book |
Common to every deal: contribution to your legal and tax advice costs at completion; standard SPA warranties with a capped claims period; exclusivity of around six weeks from heads of terms; mutual NDA before any data is exchanged. We will also typically offer a residual percentage revenue stake in the business we acquire, so you keep a share of the long term value you have helped build.
Our process
- 1
Introductory call
Thirty minutes with a founder. NDA on request beforehand.
- 2
Data pack
Accounts, commission schedule, contract due diligence with Clearbook, cost breakdown, key agreements. We tell you exactly what we need and in what format.
- 3
Indicative offer
Within two weeks of the pack: price, structure and the role you want.
- 4
Diligence
Light touch. Clearbook and our own AI do most of the heavy lifting, generating and supporting the valuation from the contract data itself. Diligence then focuses on anything that comes out of that work, plus standard areas of business risk that have nothing to do with the book. Commercial diligence is led by a founder, financial by our Finance Director, technical by our technology lead. Our software is linked to EES, GES, Xoserve and Electralink, which saves weeks of manual checks, reconciliations and disputes.
- 5
Heads of terms and SPA
Muckle LLP, our external legal advisers on sales and acquisitions, draft on our side. We contribute to your legal and tax advice costs at completion.
- 6
Completion and integration
Customers notified jointly, suppliers informed, staff onboarded, your role starts.
Typical timetable: eight to twelve weeks from indicative offer to completion, covering heads of terms and diligence, when records are in order and the indicative offer is accepted in principle. Our most recent offer went from first data pack to a written offer in three weeks.
What happens to your staff and customers
Staff
On a share sale their employer does not change; only its ownership does. On an asset sale TUPE applies and they transfer on existing terms. We are buying a working business and expect to keep the people who make it work. Sales staff move to our commission scheme, which we show you during diligence. Tritility employees get up to 40 days' annual leave including bank holidays and service days, pension and benefits.
You, after the sale
We are willing to discuss you retaining equity after the sale, either in your own business or in the wider group, so that both sides stay aligned on the long term value of what you have built.
Customers
No contact before completion. At completion a joint letter in your name tells customers the business has joined Tritility and nothing about their contract changes. Existing letters of authority remain valid on a share sale. Renewals go through our panel of 30 or more direct suppliers, placed with the supplier that is right for the customer. Customers also gain access at no charge to the Envisij energy management platform, DemandIQ capacity reviews, bill validation and net zero support.
Suppliers
We notify each supplier under the existing agreements and handle any novation. Commission on existing contracts continues under the original terms.
- Mutual NDA before any data is exchanged.
- No approach to your customers, staff or suppliers without your consent.
- Contribution to your legal and tax advice costs at completion.
Answer a few questions and, once you have registered and signed the mutual NDA, see an indicative range straight away.
Register for the Secure Area and sign the mutual NDA. Clearbook does the contract due diligence, so the questions we ask you are few and specific.
Have a confidential conversation with us
Thirty minutes with our acquisitions team, with an NDA first if you prefer. We will not contact your customers, staff or suppliers without your say-so.