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newsline
Woking Chamber of Commerce
newsline
is supported by
July 2011
Woking
Chamber
The Business Heart of Woking
Lansbury Business Estate
Date for Woking Means Business Show:
Wednesday 23rd November2011
Woking Chamber of Commerce have
announced that their annual business-tobusiness exhibition is to take place at the
HG Wells Conference & Events Centre on
Wednesday 23 November 2011.
With exhibition bookings being made
later and later in the present economic climate, the organisers, The Webster
Partnership, delayed launching the event
until after their recent Guildford Exhibition.
Paul Webster said 'We were delighted
that the Guildford Show sold out and that it
was well received by both exhibitors and
visitors. Unsurprisingly, attendance was a little down on previous years but results were
such that several of the main exhibitors
booked up for the Woking event within 24
hours of the Guildford show ending.’
There will be two substantial changes to
the event this year. Firstly, to help companies who wish to continue exhibiting when
cash flows might suggest they shouldn't, we
have introduced a number of smaller stands
in the main Wells Room for as little as £340
plus VAT.
Secondly, we are introducing table top
Lansbury celebrates
30 years in Knaphill
Long established Surrey business Lansbury
Business Estate recently celebrated its 30th
anniversary with a reception for its tenants
and special guests, Woking MP Jonathan
Lord and the Mayor of Woking
Mohammed Iqbal.
Over 100 people, including tenants
and business organisations such as
Woking Chamber, Surrey Chambers of
Commerce and Surrey Institute of
Directors, enjoyed the celebrations.
The six acre business park, a well
respected and established member of the
local business community, houses 45 companies which employ over 500 people.
The oldest tenent is precision engineering
specialists, Delen Tooling, which has been
at Lansbury for 30 years and acknowledge
that Lansbury is an understanding and
approachable family business.
Lansbury Chairman Arthur Craven
says, “Our continued success is down to a
simple formula: many years of experience,
knowing what is required in a business
and how best to achieve it, and the
expertise of our knowledgeable, longstanding staff.
“We would like to thank all our tenants for choosing to become a part of the
Lansbury Business Estate community and
look forward to working with them for
many more years to come.”
Jonathan Lord, MP for Woking, added,
“The Lansbury Business Estate is a Woking
stalwart and having achieved 30 successful years growing their own business and
nurturing others, they really are a jewel in
the local crown.”
displays in the upper Kemp Room for especially for start ups and one-man-bands for
just £100 plus VAT.
Fellow organiser James Webster said,
'We are also planning to include three
'Expert Areas' in the Kemp Room with
tables and chairs for specialists to give
advice on How to Start a Business, Marketing
Your New Business on a Shoestring and Job
Seekers Advice. Full details are available on
the exhibiion website www.wokingmeansbusiness.com or from Paul or James Webster
who can be contacted on 0118 973 1976.
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The Partners and Staff of W. Davies
W Davies has celebrated a century
of service to the community
W. Davies has celebrated its first
century of legal practice in its
Woking offices. This coincided
with the marking of 50 years of
legal service by W. Davies’ Senior
Partner, Simon Oxley – all of it
spent at the firm.
The firm aims to provide clear
and cost-effective legal advice on
Residential
&
Commercial
Property, Commercial matters,
Company Law, Intellectual
Property & IT, Litigation,
Employment, Wills, Trusts, Elderly
Client issues, Estate & Tax
Planning and Family Law.
As Chamber members, you
have obvious commercial interests. Therefore, in these more difficult economic times, you may be
particularly interested in how our
Litigation Department could assist
your business. Amongst other ● Employment issues
commercial
matters,
this ● Mediation
Department deals with the following:
Outside the commercial area,
our Litigation Department has
● Commercial Disputes
recently opened a Family division,
run by Ms. Vandana Chitroda,
● Debt Recovery
who can be contacted for a no● Commercial Property Disputes
obligation meeting.
● Professional Negligence
01483 744900
● Consumer Problems
www.wdavies.com
Structuring property sales
as corporate sales
As property owners and professionals are
aware, stamp duty land tax (SDLT) is
payable by buyers of properties. SDLT is
currently charged at 4% on residential
and commercial properties over
£500,000 and at 5% on residential properties over £1m. Contrast this with
stamp duty at 0.5% on shares (whatever
the price) and it becomes immediately
obvious that property transactions are
less expensive if structured as company
sales.
For example, we have just advised a
client on a sale of residential properties
worth over £11m how to use a corporate structure to avoid SDLT of more
than £500,000.
Such savings justify further thought.
What are the implications of using a corporate sale? Are such sales any more difficult?
The short answer is that property
transactions are no less difficult than corporate transactions. They both require
care, expertise and judgement from
experienced solicitors and other professionals. The significant differences if we
can structure a property sale as a corporate sale are:
● warranties:
whilst property
owners generally refuse to give warranties, sellers of companies do not
have that luxury. Purchasers of companies cannot see, stand on, touch
or survey their target as they can
properties. They therefore demand
extensive warranties as to the debts,
liabilities and history of the company;
● tax risk: a company’s tax liabilities
remain with it. Consequently, company buyers demand an indemnity
from a person of substance to cover
tax liabilities;
● timing and deposits:
property sales are usually agreed at
exchange, when a deposit is paid
and put at risk by the buyer, and the
deal will be completed subsequently.
The risks between exchange and
completion on a company sale make
it preferable to have a simultaneous
exchange and completion;
● landlord consents: with leasehold
property, there is usually no requirement on a company sale for the
landlord to consent to the change in
ownership of the company;
● regulatory risk:
sales of shares
are subject to the Financial Services
and Markets Act 2000 which restricts
how one can market shares.
Breaches of that legislation have serious consequences, so take advice!
● due diligence:
this will be more
extensive on the sale of a company
as the buyer will need to investigate
the company, not just the property;
● documentation:
share
sales
require different formalities. They
may require an extensive tax
covenant (although on another
recent deal we negotiated a very limited indemnity for tax). Both transactions may require exclusivity or
confidentiality
arrangements.
Multiple sellers should agree a contribution agreement which apportions liability between them;
● costs: advisory fees will be higher
to structure a transaction as a corporate sale, but should be justified by
the SDLT saving. How much greater
will depend mainly on the practicality of the parties and their advisers
and the complexity of the issues; and
● tax and accounting issues:
finally, a proper analysis of the tax
and accounting consequences
should be carried out by each of the
parties. Care will be needed particularly to ensure that any pre-sale
transfer of the property to a company should not trigger any further tax
charge.
If you are considering a significant property deal which may benefit from structuring as a corporate deal, do contact
me or any member of our corporate
team on a without obligation basis.
Mark Lucas, Partner
Barlow Robbins LLP
01483 748512
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Farewell to Sue Granville
Sue Granville joined Woking Chamber
of Commerce in 2001 having
previously worked for the company
that managed Wolsey Place Shopping
Centre. The Chamber needed a
permanent member of staff who
could administer its daily affairs and
co-ordinate its strong programme of
events.
Sue became the lynch pin, a
stalwart and general fixer for everything the Chamber has done and
achieved since then, as well as being
involved with raising considerable
sums of money for various Woking
based charities.
Some 18 months ago, Sue went
into hospital suffering from
pneumonia and had a serious
operation on her lungs. Having been
off work for several months, she
returned to the Chamber but she has
never quite fully recovered. As a result
of this, it has been decided that she
should take a break from work to get
her health back.
Chamber President, Graham Mott
said ‘We will miss Sue and would like
to thank her for everything she has
done to help and support the
Chamber over the last ten years. We
wish her well on her journey back to
good health. Looking to the future
this will mean some changes for the
Chamber and we will keep you
informed.’
Forthcoming Events
● 15 th July – Monthly networking meeting at the Ambassadors
● 18th November – Monthly networking meeting at the Ambassadors
● 9th September - Monthly networking meeting at the Ambassadors
● 23rd November –
● 16th September - GORSE HILL – DE VERE VENUES –
Joint event with Surrey Chambers
● 14th October - Monthly networking meeting at the Ambassadors
● 4th November – Networking Luncheon at the Toby Cottage
WOKING MEANS BUSINESS
EXHIBITION
at the H G Wells Conference and Events Centre – FREE EVENT
● 9th December – Monthly networking meeting at the Ambassadors –
Special Christmas buffet
For full details please visit our website at: www.wokingchamber.org.uk
Jonathan Olaofe (7th from left), Project Manager of Woking Borough Council’s ‘Invest in Your Success’ scheme
which helps school pupils prepare for working life. He’s pictured here after presenting to the guests at Woking Chamber’s
June Networking event at the New Victoria Theatre
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