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Often a company or group of companies has developed gradually over years, with different businesses being run within a single company or the group structure being overly complex for historic reasons. When a decision is made that a group, sub-group, single company, business or a collection of assets should be divested, it is often necessary to restructure in order to rationalise the structure and/or separate out the parts that are to be sold.

This note considers the various issues that should be considered before a sale. Indeed, groups may wish to consider these issues periodically to ensure that their structure is suitable for a quick sale if the opportunity arises suddenly.

However, many companies will not address them until a potential buyer has already been identified and commercial negotiations have already started. In that case, these issues should be considered alongside the factors that should be taken into account when deciding on the sale structure itself (see the Comparison of share sale and trade