April 2026

Is now a good time to sell a privately owned company, or could the next 6 to 24 months be better?

The honest answer on timing

If you are a privately owned business owner asking whether now is a good time to sell, the uncomfortable but truthful answer is this: for the right company, yes; for the unprepared company, probably not.

The UK M&A market is open, capital is available, and serious buyers are still pursuing good assets. But this is no longer a forgiving market. Buyers are cautious, diligence is harder, funding is more selective, and any weakness in management depth, margin resilience or customer concentration is punished more quickly than it was in the era of cheap money. 

We are handling three exits right now, each a strong company and well prepared for exit, and market demand is strong, particularly from international buyers.

What the UK market is actually telling us

The headline numbers matter. PwC reports that UK deal volume fell by 12% in 2025 to 2,991 transactions, while total deal value rose 12% to £131 billion and average deal size increased by 28% to £43.7 million.

That is a revealing combination. It tells us the market has not shut down. It tells us that buyers are still prepared to pay for quality. But it also tells us that the market is discriminating much more than before. Better businesses are still drawing attention; weaker businesses are simply finding the process slower, harder and less rewarding.

The economic backdrop is supportive, but only up to a point

The UK economy is not booming, but nor is it falling apart. ONS data shows UK GDP grew by 1.4% in 2025, and monthly GDP rose by 0.5% in February 2026 after modest growth in January and December. Business investment increased by 4.3% across 2025. That is enough to support confidence, but not enough to create a wave of exuberance. In other words, this is a market in which good businesses can still sell well, but not one in which buyers will suspend disbelief. Unless you happen to be an AI startup!

Why the next 6 to 24 months may (perhaps) improve, but may not become dramatically easier

There is, perhaps, a case that the next 6 to 24 months could be slightly better for sellers than today, chiefly because financing conditions may ease. The Bank of England held Bank Rate at 3.75% in March 2026. Lower or steadier funding costs would generally help leveraged buyers, support debt availability and improve confidence around valuation. That said, this is unlikely to be a return to the easy conditions of 2021. More likely, it would be a modest improvement in deal mechanics rather than a wholesale re-rating of private company values.

The geopolitical risk that owners should not ignore

The complication is geopolitics. UK inflation rose to 3.3% in March 2026, up from 3.0% in February. The Bank of England has explicitly linked higher near-term inflation to conflict in the Middle East and its impact on energy and commodity prices.

The IMF has made much the same point, warning that rising commodity prices, firmer inflation expectations and tighter financial conditions are testing the resilience of the global economy. The Bank’s Financial Policy Committee has also warned that a sustained energy shock would increase debt-servicing pressure for a tail of leveraged corporates and SMEs, especially in energy-intensive sectors. So, while conditions may improve, there is also a credible risk that they become more volatile instead.  

The practical conclusion for founders

What should an owner do? If your business is already well prepared for sale – strong management, defensible margins, good cash conversion, credible forecasting and no obvious due diligence tripwires, this is a perfectly viable market in which to transact.

But if your business needs 12 to 18 months to reduce risk, deepen management, improve recurring revenues or normalise performance, there is a sensible argument for using that period to build value and come to market later. The real judgment is not whether the macro backdrop will be marginally better in a year’s time. It is whether your business will be materially better. In this market, preparation still matters more than prophecy.

All that being said….whilst we cannot forecast ‘known unknowns’, there is sufficient market noise around increasing global tension in the years to come that may point founders back to one simple conclusion: An exit now may well be the very right time…

To discuss your particular circumstances in confidence, get in touch now.

Tags: defensible margins, diligence, due diligence, exit, M&A, preparation, private business, Quality, tine to sell