Buying a business in Cardiff

Wales is frequently lumped in with Scotland as "the devolved bit" in guidance written from London, and for a business buyer that is misleading in a useful direction: most of the law is the same, and the parts that differ are specific and checkable.

What is the same, and what is not

The law of England and Wales is one jurisdiction. Company law, contract law, the share purchase agreement, commercial leases and the security of tenure provisions of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 all work exactly as they do in Bristol or Birmingham. An English solicitor is not out of their depth here.

That is a genuine difference from Scotland, where the 1954 Act does not apply at all and a separate doctrine governs lease continuation. If you are comparing a Cardiff business with a Glasgow one, our Glasgow guide sets out how different that is.

Business rates are devolved. Wales has its own multiplier and its own Small Business Rates Relief scheme, distinct from England's. Valuations come from the Valuation Office Agency's Welsh listings.

Two practical points. Look the property up rather than taking the figure in the information memorandum on trust. And check what relief the current occupier actually receives, because relief can depend on the occupier's circumstances rather than the property's and may not carry over to you. A business whose rates bill triples on completion is a business whose profit forecast was wrong.

A range of sector regulation is devolved too, including in health and social care, education and the environment. If you are buying into a regulated sector, confirm which regulator applies and what the inspection position is, rather than assuming the English body.

The numbers

A lower birth rate and a lower death rate describe a market that churns less than London or the North West: fewer new competitors each year, and fewer businesses coming to market. For a buyer that means the search takes longer and registering criteria with several agents matters more than relying on portals.

These are Wales-wide figures rather than Cardiff ones.

What actually trades

• Professional and B2B services. Accountancy, recruitment, IT support, consultancy. The deepest category by deal count and the one with the most transferable earnings.
• Public-sector-adjacent services. A meaningful feature of the Cardiff economy, and it produces a specific shape: businesses with a small number of large institutional customers on fixed-term contracts. See below.
• Media and creative. A genuine base, anchored by broadcast. Agencies and production businesses trade regularly, and concentration is usually the question.
• Hospitality and leisure. Substantial, competitive, leasehold, and with an event-driven component that makes a trading year uneven.
• Health and care. With Welsh regulators rather than English ones, and with the service rating forming part of the valuation.

The local question worth the most attention

Institutional customers and retender dates

A business whose revenue comes largely from public bodies or large institutions looks stable, and in one important respect it is: they pay, and they pay on terms.

The risk is concentrated at a single point in time. These contracts are usually fixed-term with a defined retender, and a change of ownership does not pause that clock.

What to establish:

• When does each contract expire, and what is the retender process? A deal completing eight months before a retender that represents 40 per cent of revenue is a different deal from one completing just after a five-year award.
• What happened at the last retender? An incumbent who has held the contract through two competitive processes has demonstrated something. One who has never faced a contested tender has not.
• Is there a change of control clause? Many institutional contracts have one, and some require consent or notification on a transfer.
• Who holds the relationship? In this category it is frequently a named individual on the seller's side, and sometimes the seller themselves.

The standard checks

The lease in full: unexpired term, inside or outside the 1954 Act, rent review pattern, change of control consent. The rates, looked up rather than accepted. The management accounts reconciled to the filed accounts, and the adjusted profit schedule taken apart line by line with evidence.

Our due diligence checklist covers the full scope.

For a Cardiff seller

If your revenue is contract-based, the most valuable preparation is the contract schedule: each customer, the term, the expiry, the retender history and who at their end values the relationship. A buyer will build that document anyway, and a seller who hands it over is selling something different from one who makes them assemble it.

Beyond that it is the same everywhere: reduce the owner dependence, evidence the adjustments, know your concentration number. Our guide to what a buyer will ask for is the list.

Where to look

Search what is listed now by sector and location, free and with no registration. Most listings are confidential, so expect a sector and a broad area rather than a name.