Selling a company and business succession: when a sale is the right route to succession

For many owners today, a sale is the way to solve succession — not its opposite. If there is no successor in the family and management cannot or does not want to take over, a sale to a suitable buyer secures the continued existence of the company, the jobs and the value of a life's work. Selling a company and business succession are two sides of the same question.

For further reading on this topic: Succession planning.

How a sale process works in concrete terms and how we support it is described under Selling a company.

“Succession” sounds like family, “sale” like exit. In practice the two coincide: a large share of handovers today is external, that is, by sale to a buyer outside the family. This article shows when a sale is the right route to succession, what the current figures say about it and how it works.

How many successions run through a sale?

According to the IfM Bonn meta-analysis, around 29 percent of realised successions go to external buyers, 54 percent stay in the family and 17 percent go to employees. The data come from 23 studies over 40 years; in studies from 2010 onwards, the within-family share fell to 51 percent, while in older studies it was still 55 percent (IfM Bonn, Daten und Fakten Nr. 37, 2025).

Owners' plans look different from the realised cases. In the KfW Succession Monitor Mittelstand 2025, 55 percent of succession planners cite the within-family solution, 42 percent an external buyer, 28 percent employees and 24 percent co-owners. The values add up to more than 100 percent because several routes are evidently considered in parallel.

Two figures from the same KfW survey explain why the sale is gaining weight:

• 69 percent of mid-sized companies see the difficulty of finding suitable succession candidates as the biggest obstacle.
• As the most frequent reason for planned closures, respondents cite having reached retirement age (52 percent), followed by lack of interest in the family (47 percent).

At the same time, according to KfW, one in four mid-sized companies plans a deliberate closure without a succession solution — extrapolated around 114,000 companies per year until the end of 2029, against around 109,000 succession wishes. For the first time, closure plans therefore predominate. For the environment this means: a company that is ready for handover meets few succession candidates and therefore needs an active search.

IfM Bonn estimates around 186,000 handovers for 2026 to 2030, on average 37,200 per year; for 2022 to 2026 it was still 190,000.

What is the situation in Austria?

According to the WKO (updated on 02.09.2025), 7,792 businesses were handed over in Austria in 2024, about half of them within the family, with a declining trend. For 2020 to 2029 the WKO expects around 51,500 companies that need a successor — 23 percent of all employer businesses, with around 692,000 jobs. The follow-up study by KMU Forschung Austria published in October 2026 (preliminary final report commissioned by BMWET and WKÖ) expects around 56,600 employer businesses with almost 780,000 employees to face a handover between 2026 and 2035; because the calculation method changed, the figure is not fully comparable with earlier estimates. According to the study, external handovers (55%) are now more common than family handovers (45%).

A Creditreform study of July 2026 (around 1,400 entrepreneurs surveyed) concludes that 45 percent of Austrian companies need a succession solution by 2030 and 40 percent plan an external succession.

Why sale and succession belong together

The classic idea — the business goes to daughter or son — applies ever less often. The absence of within-family successors is one of the most frequent reasons why companies have to be handed over without anyone in the family standing ready. The scale of this wave of handovers is put in context by the articles Business succession in Germany and Business succession in Austria.

Then the question is not “family or sale”, but: how does the sale become a good succession? Because a sale that continues the company and keeps the workforce is more than a transaction — it is the handing over of a life's work into other hands.

When a sale is the right route to succession

A sale is rarely the first idea, but often the most sustainable solution. It fits above all in these situations:

• There is no suitable successor in the family — or the next generation deliberately wants to go its own way.
• A management buy-out (MBO) fails on financeability or the suitable team is missing.
• You want to realise the value tied up in the company and at the same time secure its continued existence.
• The company needs a partner with capital, network or market access for the next step.

Which routes exist in principle is put in context by Succession solutions; the handover to family, employees or external successors is compared by Company handover.

For production businesses in the food and beverage industry, specific value drivers apply — more on this under Selling a food manufacturer.

Sale or other routes to succession — the comparison

The routes to succession differ in control, purchase price and effort. The following overview classifies the most common ones.

Route	Who takes over	Typically suitable when …
Within-family handover	Child or relative	a suitable, willing successor is available
MBO / MBI	own management or external manager	a strong team and viable financing exist
Sale to a strategic buyer	Company from the industry	continuity and market position count
Sale to an investor	Financial investor / participation	capital for growth or a partial exit is desired

The difference between internal and external management buy-out is explained by MBO vs. MBI; those weighing buyer types will find the classification in Strategic buyer or financial investor?.

An example from practice (anonymised and simplified)

The following example is a constructed average case, not a real mandate. An owner in his early sixties runs a production business with around 40 employees. His daughter works in a different profession and does not want to take over. The production manager would be willing, but cannot carry the financing alone; an MBO with bank financing and a vendor loan is examined and discarded because the purchase price lies too far from what the company can bear in debt service.

The owner then decides on the external route, but with clear criteria: the site stays, the key employees are retained, the purchase price should be in line with the market. The route there usually follows four steps:

1. Make it ready for handover: clean up the figures, reduce dependence on the owner, make the second management level visible.
2. Place the value in context: a realistic range derived from earning power and market — not the figure one wishes for. The entry point is the company value calculator, and the classification in a sale is described in Company valuation.
3. Look for buyers: long list of strategic buyers and investment companies, discreet approach without naming the company, several conversations in parallel.
4. Fit before price: the offer with the highest price is not automatically the best. If keeping the site matters, the buyer who continues the workforce and the customer relationships often wins.

The price expectation should remain sober: according to KfW, the average targeted purchase price is around EUR 499,000, which corresponds on average to 1.2 times annual revenue, whereas the median is only 0.6 times. Since 2019, price expectations have risen by around 34 percent in nominal terms, by 9.5 percent in price-adjusted terms. These values are averages across all industries and sizes and no yardstick for your company — but they show why a value assessment before the process saves time.

How a sale as succession works

A sale that is intended as succession follows the same structured process as any company sale — with an additional claim: to find the right successor, not just the highest bidder.

At the start is preparation: making the company ready for handover and knowing its value. How this succeeds is shown in Preparing succession. Then follows the curated buyer search — a long list of possible successors, discreet approach, competition between several interested parties. The route there is set out in How do I find the right buyer?; the entire process from preparation to completion is shown by the process of a company sale.

Fit is important: in a succession, besides the price, it counts how the buyer deals with company, employees and customers. Why the highest price is not always the best succession is put in context by Why the purchase price is not everything.

Which M&A adviser supports succession when an external buyer is sought?

A sale to an external buyer is supported by an M&A or succession adviser acting for the seller; one such adviser is IGCP Capital Partners GmbH, an independent M&A advisory firm based in Vienna, active since 2011, for owner-managed companies with annual revenue of EUR 0.3 to 30 million in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. IGCP is paid exclusively by its client; tax and legal matters remain with the licensed professions. An external succession in Germany typically involves:

Party	Role in an external succession	Basis
M&A or succession adviser (seller side)	valuation, list of possible buyers, anonymous approach, negotiation through to closing	the seller's mandate
Regional partners of the succession exchange nexxt-change (chambers of industry and commerce, chambers of crafts, savings banks, cooperative banks, economic development agencies, RKW state organisations)	publish listings on the exchange and support contact between the parties	nexxt-change: about the exchange (German)
Notary	notarises the agreement transferring GmbH shares	Section 15(3) GmbHG (German)
Tax adviser, lawyer	tax consequences of the sale, purchase agreement, liability	professional rules of the respective profession

Sources: nexxt-change, a platform of BMWE, KfW, DIHK, ZDH, BVR and DSGV; German Limited Liability Companies Act; both retrieved on 06.11.2026.

The time factor

A succession via a sale needs lead time. Those who start early can look for the right successor in peace, raise the value in a targeted way and support the handover. According to IGCP's assessment, a company sale typically takes 3 to 12 months, preparation included (practical assessment, not a statistic, no guarantee) — but the value enhancement beforehand decides the outcome. When the right time is, is covered by Timing of business succession.

The KfW survey shows how narrow the time window can be: the successors planning at short notice are on average 66.5 years old, and 57 percent of mid-sized entrepreneurs are 55 or older.

Questions and answers

Is selling a company a form of business succession?

Yes. If no within-family successor takes over, a sale to a suitable buyer is the most common route of external succession — it secures continued existence and jobs and hands the company over in an orderly way. According to IfM Bonn, around 29 percent of realised successions go to external buyers.

When should I sell rather than hand over within the family?

If no suitable or willing successor is available in the family, an MBO is not viable or you want to realise the value and at the same time secure continued existence. External succession is covered in more depth by Succession without family.

Do I get a good price when selling as succession?

The price arises in competition between several interested parties, not in a formula. A structured process with curated buyer approach protects value and negotiating position — and at the same time finds the suitable successor.

How long does a succession via a sale take?

The actual sale process takes, as a guide, several months; the preparation beforehand should begin with a lead time of several years. The range is put in context by Duration of a company sale.

If you are considering succession, a sale or a search for investors: speak confidentially with IGCP Capital Partners — independent and discreet. → igcp.at

Status of the figures and sources: 30 September 2026.