{"id":174852,"date":"2022-08-22T05:44:47","date_gmt":"2022-08-22T04:44:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/legalvision.co.uk\/?p=174852"},"modified":"2025-07-02T00:40:32","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T23:40:32","slug":"share-purchase-agreement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/legalvision.co.uk\/business-sale-purchase\/share-purchase-agreement\/","title":{"rendered":"What is a Share Purchase Agreement?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Are you a business owner looking to acquire shares in another company? Or are you looking to sell shares in your business? If so, one of the critical documents of any share purchase is the share purchase agreement<\/a> (‘SPA’). An SPA is the primary document that guides a share purchase. However, SPAs can include many different sections and appear quite complex. This article will explain the purpose of SPAs, their terms, and which party usually drafts the document.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Share Purchases vs Asset Purchases <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

SPAs govern share purchases. A share purchase is when a seller transfers shares to the buyer in exchange for consideration, such as cash. You can think of share purchases in contrast to asset purchases. In an asset purchase, the seller transfers the legal title in an asset (such as a fleet of cars) to the buyer in exchange for cash. Although it is possible to structure M&A deals as either a share or asset purchase, this article will focus on share purchases. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is an SPA?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

You do not buy a business just for the sake of holding its shares. Rather, you want the benefit that the shares confer. In other words, both the buyer and seller want to know:<\/p>\n\n\n\n