Confidence in futures

The survey for the quarter ending October 31^st featured the sale of 60 practices where a NASDAL lawyer or accountant had been involved. The average sale price for an NHS practice was 117 per cent of turnover, for a private practice 88 per cent, and for a mixed practice, 110 per cent.

Alan Suggett, a partner in UNW LLP, and the NASDAL member responsible for the survey, said that large NHS practices continued to be valued on a multiple of their profits rather than percentage of turnover and this tended to push up prices.

The latest survey showed that some large mixed practices in the London orbit were fetching prices as high as 160 per cent of turnover compared to practices in Wales, the Midlands or the North where practices were often selling for lower than 100 per cent.

Said Alan: “Because there are a number of transactions which vary significantly from the averages, care should be taken when using the results of the survey, which reflect averages based on figures for the entire country.”