Before a brand can list, a verification provider checks the seller's identity, screens the seller and the company against sanctions and anti-money-laundering lists, and the exchange confirms the seller can act for the company. Nobody checks what the listing says. That part is the buyer's work, and the checklist below follows the order of a listing page.
The business
- Business overview: what the company sells, to whom and since when. Compare the founding date with the company registry.
- Company operations: where it operates today. An ENOR only covers a territory where the brand does not operate, so the operating footprint should not include the territory you are buying.
- Team: who runs the business and how long they have done so.
- Brand overview: how the brand is known in its home market, and whether that recognition would travel.
- Customers: who buys, how often they return and how concentrated revenue is.
- Competition: who already serves the territory you are looking at.
- Intellectual property: what the brand has registered and where. The ENOR is a right to the brand's intellectual property, so check that the marks exist.
- Financials: revenue, margins and trend. Listings link to the company registry where one exists; Host Savoie's listing, for example, links to its record at the UK's Companies House.
- Growth plans: where the brand intends to expand, and whether your territory is part of that plan.
- Legal and compliance: disputes, licenses and anything that could affect the brand's ability to grant rights.
The ENOR itself
- Territory: whether it covers a whole country or a region of one.
- Repurchase option: the rate, the validity period and the fact that it runs from the date of sale.
- Originator's preference: whether the brand is seeking, neutral toward or not open to operating partners.
- How it can be bought: at the listed price, or by offer only.
- History: the listing page shows past price changes and sales.
Your exit
- Assume the repurchase option may never be used, and decide whether the ENOR still makes sense to you.
- Look at the secondary market before you buy. 10 ENORs are currently offered by their holders, and no resale has completed yet.
- Take your own advice on tax, law and the securities rules where you live; the exchange does not guarantee compliance with them.
Misrepresentation has a consequence. The exchange takes down a misdescribed listing and holds the seller in breach of its exchange agreement, and every sale runs on the standard-form Transfer Agreement under English law.