Why?

There are many reasons why shareholders may be interested in selling a company. On many occasions, different factors combine to spark off disinvestment.

In family companies this is generally due to problems with passing the company onto the next generation or disputes between shareholders, receiving an unsolicited bid from another company, the advisability of the company being part of a group with greater size, resources and ability to compete in the market or the need to obtain liquidity to strengthen other companies in the family group.

In multinational companies, the reasons behind divestments are generally the need to pull out of businesses or markets that are non-strategic in order to concentrate resources on core businesses, the need for liquidity in order to lower the company's leverage a legal obligation in situations where there is excessive concentration or because the initial acquisition of the company took place as part of a larger transaction and they had intended to divest right from the start.

In addition, for companies in which venture capital funds have invested, divestment often takes place due to the need to provide the venture capital company with liquidity or the belief that the company has reached its value potential and will require new injections of funds to rise it further.