What happens if I have multiple licences and only one agency approves the transfer?

Each licence and its issuing body operates independently, so approval from one regulator has no bearing on how another handles its own review — a business holding several licences across different levels of government or different regulatory bodies is effectively managing several separate approval processes at once, each running on its own timeline and its own criteria, with no guarantee they'll land at the same time or reach the same outcome.

This can create real complications for closing if your purchase agreement treats all required licences as a single, bundled condition — one slow or difficult regulator can hold up a transaction that's otherwise ready to proceed on every other front, even though the other licences have been approved without issue.

Because bundling every licence into one all-or-nothing condition gives a single difficult regulator outsized power over your entire closing, consider whether your purchase agreement can separate licences into individual conditions, allowing the deal to proceed on approved fronts while the remaining approval catches up. A Treadstone business lawyer can help structure this flexibility into your agreement.