News & Insights

In turbulent economic times family-run businesses have shown their ability to often cope with economic ups and downs relatively well. In Family Business United, Senior Associate, Charlie Hewlett looks at the reasons behind the intrinsic resilience of family businesses and highlights the practical measures that should be considered in the current economic environment.

With the employee ownership trusts on the rise, Senior Associate, Charlie Hewlett outlines the five main conditions which must be satisfied for a shareholder to be eligible for the tax benefits of selling to an employee ownership trust and the risks business owners should be aware of.

There can be times where it makes commercial sense to buy the company that owns a target property rather than buying the property itself. Corporate Senior Associate, Charlie Hewlett sets out 6 key points that arise when buying property through a company for the first time.

Senior Associate, Charlie Hewlett and Associate, Hugo Brown join Tom Lethaby from RVE Corporate Finance to clarify what employee ownership trusts are and the potential pros and cons involved for business owners in the Employment Law Journal (Legallease).

Senior Associate, Charlie Hewlett and Associate Hugo Brown highlight the threefold increase in the number of businesses transferring ownership to employees through Employee Ownership Trusts, showing how owners are increasingly waking up to the advantages of the model.

Charlie Hewlett, Senior Associate at Boodle Hatfield says: “The gulf in share options granted to men and women shows there is clearly considerable work to be done in narrowing the gender remuneration gap. Share option schemes can be a powerful retention tool, especially for managers in high growth sectors. These figures are likely to reflect the ongoing underrepresentation of women in such roles.”

In the context of employment contracts, a ‘post-termination restrictive covenant’ is a clause in the contract which seeks to prevent a departing employee from engaging in certain activities after their employment has ended.

From looking at the headlines, there is a case for saying that the UK’s start up ecosystem was one of the few beneficiaries of the Covid pandemic.

Charlie Hewlett and Hugo Brown of Boodle Hatfield and James Heath of PwC Raise | Ventures highlight six points that are often overlooked or not given enough consideration prior to an exit.

The UK listing rules are currently in the spotlight, with the Government keen to make London a more attractive place for listings.