How do I sell my accounting firm in Singapore without staff or clients finding out?
Off-market and NDA-gated. At Clearmere nothing is publicly listed and nothing carries your name. Early materials use a reference code instead of your firm name, buyers see identifying details only after signing an NDA you have approved by name, and you decide when your team and clients are told. In a profession where competitors are always happy to take a call from an unsettled client, that discipline protects the fee base you are selling.
What is my accounting firm worth?
A firm is priced off normalised earnings, meaning the accounts adjusted for owner-specific costs, including a market salary for your own work. What moves the number most is how much of the fee base recurs and is retained year on year, how many clients deal only with you, and whether a manager layer can run the work. Owner-operated accounting and corporate services firms in Singapore typically change hands at roughly 3 to 4 times normalised EBITDA, with up to about 5 times only for larger firms with strong recurring fees and competing buyers. Consultancies usually sit lower. We give you a written valuation under NDA, for a fixed fee credited against our success fee if you sell with us.
Who buys accounting and corporate services firms in Singapore?
Mostly larger accounting and corporate services groups adding clients and capacity, regional firms building a Singapore presence, and individual practitioners or senior managers stepping up to ownership, sometimes as a management buyout. Groups tend to pay for a recurring fee base and systems. Individual buyers pay for a practice they can personally run. Approaching several quietly, in parallel, usually protects the price better than accepting the first approach from a firm down the road.
Can I sell a firm that does audit work?
Usually, but the audit side needs care. Public accounting work is regulated by ACRA, and an audit practice generally has to remain owned and controlled by public accountants. In practice a buyer who is not a public accountant usually takes the non-audit units, such as accounting, tax and corporate secretarial work, while the audit practice goes to another public accounting firm. Corporate secretarial work may also need its own registration with ACRA. The exact position depends on your structure, so settle it early with your lawyer.
What does Clearmere charge to sell an accounting firm?
Our sale fee is success-based and paid on completion: no sale, no fee. A written valuation is a separate fixed fee, agreed and paid before we start, and credited in full against our success fee if you sign with us within 6 months and the sale completes. The first conversation, a short questionnaire and our written recommendation on which valuation fits are free and carry no obligation.
Will my clients stay after I sell, and how does that affect how I am paid?
Client retention is the central risk a buyer prices in this sector, because fees can leave with the person who earns them. Deals for accounting and corporate services firms therefore often include a transition period in which you introduce clients personally, with part of the price deferred or linked to the fees retained over the following year or two. Those terms are negotiable and worth negotiating properly. We put a handover plan on the table at the start, so retention becomes a shared goal rather than a late lever to cut the price.
