SHEPHERD & WEDDERBURN (TRUSTEES) LIMITED

🌳Matureactive

SC137531 · ltd · incorporated 1992-04-01

Investment thesis

Established operating company — standard diligence applies, no dominant angle.

Why interesting: Live, filing, normal profile.

Why risky: No standout signals in either direction.

Opportunity decay

approaching window · 12-months

Approaching a transaction window — refinance or sale event plausible in the next 12 months.

· Oldest live charge 22.5y old — refinance window within 12 months

🔒Estimated value

—

Upgrade to see

Turnover

—

year to Apr 2025

Net worth

—

book net assets

Opportunity

83/100

Exceptional

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What this business does

Primary activity: Activities of head offices

Sector: Professional, scientific & technical

Investor take

Pursue

Strong opportunity: active trading company with exceptional profile and bankable structure.

Opportunity 83/100 (exceptional), bankability 75/100. High owner-dependency — earn-out structure likely required for clean transition. Share purchase looks the cleaner deal structure. Biggest value-creation lever: Discharge stale live charges. 3 live charge(s) created 15+ years ago — likely paid but undischarged. Clean register. Most likely exit: share sale to pe / searcher (65/100).

🏦

Refinance opportunity

3 live charges · 2 lenders · oldest 22.5y

50/100

clean up first

Refinance viable after a tidy-up — address the highlighted items first.

· Oldest live charge is 22.5 years old — likely at or near maturity.
· Two lenders — manageable, but coordination required.
· Legal-friction score 30/100 — workable, but lender will want more DD.

Data confidence

Overall: high (84/100)

Strong data coverage across all sections. AI outputs should be trusted with minimal caveats.

Company profile

address, 1 SIC codes, incorporation date

100

Financials

2 years of iXBRL accounts extracted (YoY deltas available) + narrative notes parsed

Lenders & charges

3 charges (3/3 with lender, 3/3 with type)

Directors & officers

100 officers (15 active, 100 linked, 95 with DOB)

Ownership & PSC

1 active PSC(s) of 1 total, 1 with control declared

Director network

14 connected companies via shared directors

Filing history

456 filings on record

Gazette notices

No matching gazette notices (standard for active companies)

Opportunity Score

83/100Exceptional

PassWatchWorth a lookStrongExceptional

Strong composite across quality, acquirability, and risk. High-priority target — progress to serious diligence.

Business quality

Active, clean filings, stable charge profile.

Acquirability

Strong succession / seller-readiness signals.

Risk profile

Few red flags.

Signal strength

100

Good data coverage for analysis.

Key financials

2 years extracted from filed iXBRL accounts

Cash

—

Net Worth

—

Current Assets

—

Current Liabilities

—

Hover to see exact values · click legend to toggle series

Financials

Extracted from Companies House accounts · FRS 102

Metric	2025-04-30	2024-04-30

Amounts extracted automatically from iXBRL. Fields left blank were not reported or not mapped. Values in GBP unless stated.

Recent activity

Last 30 days

filings

Last 90 days

filing

• 1 confirmation-statement

Last 180 days

filings

• 1 confirmation-statement
• 1 accounts
• 1 officers

Counts from Companies House filing history.

Corporate timeline (207 events)Click to expand

2026-01-13
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-dormant
accounts · AA
2025-11-06
📄
termination-director-company-with-name-termination-date
officers · TM01
2025-10-31
➖
CAIRNS, Rodger William resigned
director
2025-01-09
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-dormant
accounts · AA
2024-01-11
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-dormant
accounts · AA
2023-07-19
📍
change-registered-office-address-company-with-date-old-address-new-address
address · AD01
2023-05-05
📄
appoint-person-director-company-with-name-date
officers · AP01
2023-05-05
📍
change-registered-office-address-company-with-date-old-address-new-address
address · AD01
2023-05-01
➕
MCLAREN, Keith Anthony appointed
director
2023-01-17
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-dormant
accounts · AA
2022-03-28
➕
FRIER, George William appointed
director
2022-03-28
➕
CAIRNS, Rodger William appointed
director
2022-03-28
📄
appoint-person-director-company-with-name-date
officers · AP01
2022-03-28
📄
appoint-person-director-company-with-name-date
officers · AP01
2022-01-18
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-dormant
accounts · AA
2021-04-27
➕
GRAHAM, Alexis Irene appointed
director
2021-04-27
➕
KERR, Eleanor Mary appointed
director
2021-04-27
📄
appoint-person-director-company-with-name-date
officers · AP01
2021-04-27
📄
appoint-person-director-company-with-name-date
officers · AP01
2021-01-25
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-dormant
accounts · AA
2020-12-18
📄
termination-director-company-with-name-termination-date
officers · TM01
2020-12-07
➖
HOLEHOUSE, Andrew Neville resigned
director
2020-11-16
📄
appoint-person-director-company-with-name-date
officers · AP01
2020-11-16
📄
termination-director-company-with-name-termination-date
officers · TM01
2020-11-03
➕
CARTY, Gillian Anne appointed
director
2020-11-03
➖
HALLY, Paul William resigned
director
2020-05-04
📄
termination-director-company-with-name-termination-date
officers · TM01
2019-05-01
➕
BLAIN, Andrew John appointed
director
2019-05-01
➕
SINCLAIR, Douglas Cassie appointed
director
2019-04-30
➖
GIBB, Stephen John resigned
director
2019-03-30
➕
CAMPBELL, Gillian Fay appointed
director
2016-05-01
➕
HALLY, Paul William appointed
director
2014-03-31
➕
KNOX, Louisa Stewart appointed
secretary
2014-03-31
➖
BLAIN, Andrew John resigned
secretary
2014-03-31
➖
ANDERSON, David John William resigned
director
2014-03-31
➖
ARCHIBALD, Colin John resigned
director
2014-03-31
➖
BELL, Patrick Ian resigned
director
2014-03-31
➖
BLAIN, Andrew John resigned
director
2014-03-31
➖
BLAKE, Walter resigned
director
2014-03-31
➖
BOAG-THOMSON, Joanna Susan resigned
director
2014-03-31
➖
BOYLE, George Carey resigned
director
2014-03-31
➖
CAIRNS, Rodger William resigned
director
2014-03-31
➖
CARLYLE, Paul Haining resigned
director
2014-03-31
➖
CARTY, Gillian Anne resigned
director
2014-03-31
➖
COLVILLE, Elaine Genevieve resigned
director
2014-03-31
➖
DOBIE, James Alexander resigned
director
2014-03-31
➖
DONALD, Paul Robert Alexander resigned
director
2014-03-31
➖
DOWNIE, Gordon Harry resigned
director
2014-03-31
➖
DRUMMOND, Iain Kerr resigned
director
2014-03-31
➖
FEROS, Anna Victoria resigned
director

Showing most recent 50 of 207 events

Owner dependency

73/100

High — earn-out structure required

Material founder dependency. Consider a 2-3 year earn-out and build in a handover plan before completion.

FACTORS

-14 active directors: Broader management team in place — suggests transferable governance.
+Founder name in company name: Company name contains director surname "RUST" — strong identity link between founder and business.
+Long-tenure founder: Senior director has been in place 28 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
+Senior director age: Director aged approximately 64 — approaching natural succession window.

Succession & seller-readiness

70/100

Strong succession signal

Multiple signals suggest succession is on the horizon. Candidate for proactive outreach.

SIGNALS

primaryFounder aged 63+: Senior director is approximately 64. Approaching typical UK retirement age — succession thinking likely.
primary20+ year tenure: Director in role 28 years. Very long tenure is a classic succession signal.
supportingClean filings + long tenure: Disciplined long-tenure operator — classic lifestyle-business pattern that often sells quietly.

Red flags

clean

No red flags detected from available public data. (This is not a clean bill of health — detailed accounts review still recommended.)

Group structure

Shepherd & Wedderburn (Nominees) Limited is the ultimate parent — holding 75%+ shares. This company sits inside their group.

🏛️

Shepherd & Wedderburn (Nominees) Limited

Corporate parent · holds 75-100% shares · board control

ultimate parent

⬇

SHEPHERD & WEDDERBURN (TRUSTEES) LIMITED

This company · SC137531

Parent relationships inferred from Persons with Significant Control filings. Full subsidiary tree requires reverse-lookup (coming).

Shareholders & ownership

1 active beneficial owner · dominant holder ≥75%

Name	Shares	Voting rights	Nature of control	Notified
Shepherd & Wedderburn (Nominees) Limited Corporate entity	75–100%	75–100%	board control75-100% shares · 75-100% voting · board control	06/04/2016

From Companies House Persons with Significant Control filings. Share ranges are banded per the public PSC regime.

🔒Co-director network graph

Radial SVG graph showing every company connected via shared directors, colour-coded by status.

Available from the Pro tier upwards.

See pricing →

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Peers ranked by estimated value, then turnover, then opportunity score.See all →

🔒Tailored diligence questions

7 specific questions generated from this company's actual signals — liquidity, leverage, director age, charge count, red flags, age-of-company.

Available from the Pro tier upwards.

See pricing →

🔒Advanced scoring suite

Exit-route ranking, improvement thesis, quiet-distress detector, covenant-pressure proxy, extraction monitor, approaching triggers, ownership drift, local cluster, value trap, debt capacity, archetype classification — 48+ scoring modules.

Available from the Pro tier upwards.

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Company details

Statusactive

Typeltd

Incorporated1992-04-01

Jurisdictionscotland

Primary SIC70100 — Activities of head offices

Registered office

C/O Shepherd And Wedderburn Llp

9 Haymarket Square

Edinburgh

EH3 8FY

Scotland

Filing status

Accounts

Next due: 2027-01-31

Last made up to: 2025-04-30

Confirmation statement

Next due: 2027-04-06

Last: 2026-03-23