Enter the price, the profit and how you would pay for it. See whether the profit covers the loans, what is left for you each year, how long until you get your money back, and the most you could sensibly pay. About two minutes. No email, and nothing you enter leaves this page.
Profit before interest, tax and depreciation, less the cost of someone to run it and the yearly spend to keep equipment and premises going. This is what pays the loans and you.
Each loan is repaid in equal yearly instalments of interest and capital over its term. Debt cover is the cash the business makes divided by the year-one repayments. Lenders usually want 1.25x or more, and more for a first-time buyer.
After the loan repayments and tax. Tax is estimated at Singapore’s 17% rate on profit after interest, with the partial exemption on the first S$200,000 and before any yearly rebate. Your return is that cash divided by the money you put in.
Sized so the business covers its loans 1.5 times: the bank loan that repayment allows at your rate and term, plus your own money and any seller loan, less deal costs.
The Enterprise Financing Scheme (M&A) helps Singapore-registered businesses with at least 30% local shareholding and group sales of up to S$500 million borrow to buy a local or overseas business or its assets. Loans go up to S$50 million per borrower group across all EFS facilities, for up to 5 years, through participating banks, with the government taking 50% of the bank’s risk. You still repay the full loan, the bank sets the rate and decides whether to lend, and a first-time buyer usually borrows through a company set up for the purchase. Check the current terms on Enterprise Singapore’s site.
The business earns well over what the loans cost each year, with room for a bad year. Lenders are likely to see this as bankable, subject to your own track record and the business’s accounts.
The profit covers the loans with a modest cushion. Lenders may ask for more of your own money, a longer term, or part of the price as a loan from the seller.
The loans take almost all the profit. One weak year and you would be putting in your own money to pay them. Lower the price, borrow less, or ask the seller to fund part of it.
On these figures the business cannot pay its loans from its own profit. A lender is unlikely to fund it on these terms.
It depends mostly on the business’s profit, not the price. Lenders look at how many times the yearly cash the business makes covers the yearly loan repayments, usually wanting 1.25x or more, and at your own track record and how much of your own money goes in. This calculator shows the most you could pay at 1.5x cover, given your cash, any seller loan and the bank’s rate and term.
A loan from participating banks, part-guaranteed by Enterprise Singapore, to buy a local or overseas business or its assets. It is open to Singapore-registered businesses with at least 30% local shareholding and group sales of up to S$500 million. Loans go up to S$50 million per borrower group across all EFS facilities, for up to 5 years, with the government taking 50% of the bank’s risk. The bank sets the rate and decides whether to lend. Check the current terms on Enterprise Singapore’s site.
Often, yes. A seller loan, repaid over two to three years, means you borrow less from the bank, and shows the seller believes the business will keep earning after they leave. Sellers usually want it secured and carrying interest. Our guide to deal structures explains how these loans work from the seller’s side.
Because profit figures from owner-run businesses often leave out what it costs to run them. If the owner works in the business without a market salary, you will either pay someone to do that job or do it yourself instead of earning elsewhere. Leaving the cost in makes the return look better than it is.
No. It is an estimate on rules of thumb, so you can see before you approach a lender whether a deal can work. A lender will look at you, the business’s accounts and security, and set its own rate, term and amount.
No. The calculator runs in your browser and nothing you type is sent to us or anyone else, unless you choose to email yourself the result or send it to Ben.
Owners take funded buyers with clear criteria more seriously. Tell us what you are looking for and how you would fund it, and when a business we are selling fits, you hear about it first, under NDA. Registering costs nothing and commits you to nothing.
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