What is WIWO?
If you’ve started to look at business listings online (or offline), you’ll see a common term WIWO, which is shown with the price.
What does it mean? It stands for walk in walk out. It means that on the day of settlement, the old owner walks out, and the new owner walks in to run the business. It differs from $price + SAV in that a stocktake does not occur.
Essentially, the new owner buys everything “as is”.
For example, you might be looking at a hairdresser for sale and it could say something like $180,000 WIWO. When it comes to settlement, aside from a few transaction fees, the buyer will pay the seller $180,000 for the business.
But why does it matter?
Many businesses are sold $price + SAV. The figure that is paid on settlement can differ depending on how much stock that business is holding at settlement. This is checked by both buyer and seller through a stocktake.
So with this in mind, you’ll see listings shown as $price + SAV, or $price WIWO. If you see both, then it’s wrong (which I’m sad to say I’ve seen a few times).
Is WIWO useful?
It’s generally used for businesses with very little or no stock.
Also in some businesses, it’s very hard to value the stock at settlement (e.g. manufacturing), so buyers and sellers may prefer to avoid doing the stocktake altogether and sell as WIWO.
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