Does my buyer need to get their own licence before we can even close the sale?

This depends on how your purchase agreement structures closing, but it's worth thinking about carefully rather than leaving it to chance, since licensing timelines rarely align neatly with a deal's target closing date. Some sales are structured so that the buyer must have their own required licence approved before closing can occur at all, treating licence approval as a genuine condition precedent; others close first and treat the licence as something the buyer arranges immediately afterward, sometimes with an interim operating arrangement to bridge any gap.

Which approach makes sense depends heavily on the type of licence involved and how strictly it's enforced — some licensing regimes are comfortable with a brief transitional period, while others expect the licence to be in place before operations under new ownership begin at all, and operating without a required licence can expose the buyer (and sometimes the seller) to real regulatory risk.

Because this affects both your timeline and your risk exposure, decide deliberately how licensing fits into your closing structure rather than assuming it will simply sort itself out. A Treadstone business lawyer can help build the right sequencing into your agreement.