ACADIAN ENGINEERING LIMITED

🌳Matureactive
SC150669 · ltd · incorporated 1994-05-04
Investment thesis
Well-run mature business — low negotiation leverage; premium likely.
Why interesting: Textbook target; clean filings, stable trading.
Why risky: No pressure on seller; any deal likely at full price.
Opportunity decay
approaching window · 12-months
Approaching a transaction window — refinance or sale event plausible in the next 12 months.
  • · Oldest live charge 10.1y old — refinance window within 12 months
🔒Estimated value
—
Upgrade to see
Turnover
—
year to May 2025
Net worth
—
book net assets
Opportunity
83/100
Exceptional
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What this business does
Primary activity: SIC 28930
Sector: Manufacturing
Investor take
Pursue
Active trading company with a 71-year-old founder — textbook succession opportunity.

Opportunity 83/100 (exceptional), bankability 80/100. Strong seller-intent signal (63/100, director aged 71). Share purchase looks the cleaner deal structure. Most likely exit: share sale to pe / searcher (65/100).

🏦

Refinance opportunity

2 live charges · oldest 10.1y

85/100
ready

Refinance conversation should be productive — structure clean and timing right.

  • · Oldest live charge is 10.1 years old — likely at or near maturity.
  • · Single lender — cleanest path to refinance.
  • · Legal-friction score 15/100 — clean.

Data confidence

Overall: medium (79/100)

Adequate coverage. AI outputs are reliable for the sections scored high; verify the rest in diligence.

Company profile
address, 1 SIC codes, incorporation date
100
Financials
2 years of iXBRL accounts extracted (YoY deltas available) + narrative notes parsed
75
Lenders & charges
2 charges (2/2 with lender, 2/2 with type)
90
Directors & officers
6 officers (5 active, 6 linked, 4 with DOB)
83
Ownership & PSC
2 active PSC(s) of 2 total, 2 with control declared
90
Director network
1 connected companies via shared directors
48
Filing history
77 filings on record
85
Gazette notices
No matching gazette notices (standard for active companies)
60
Opportunity Score
83/100Exceptional
PassWatchWorth a lookStrongExceptional 

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

Business quality
70
Active, clean filings, stable charge profile.
Acquirability
85
Strong succession / seller-readiness signals.
Risk profile
85
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
—
£0£340k£681k£1.0m£1.4m£1.7mMay 2024May 2025

Hover to see exact values · click legend to toggle series

Financials

Extracted from Companies House accounts · FRS 102
Metric2025-05-312024-05-31
Total assets—£1.76M
Current assets—£1.26M
Cash—£667.9k
Debtors—£220.3k
Net assets—£1.70M
Average employees12—

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

🔒Filing-note intelligence

1 signal detected in this company's narrative notes — going-concern language, audit opinion, contingent liabilities, related-party transactions.

Available from the Pro tier upwards.

See pricing →

Recent activity

Last 30 days
2
filings
  • • 1 capital
  • • 1 resolution
Last 90 days
2
filings
  • • 1 capital
  • • 1 resolution
Last 180 days
3
filings
  • • 1 capital
  • • 1 resolution
  • • 1 officers
Counts from Companies House filing history.
Corporate timeline (26 events)Click to expand
  1. 2026-04-20
    📄
    capital-cancellation-shares
    capital · SH06
  2. 2026-04-16
    📄
    resolution
    resolution · RESOLUTIONS
  3. 2025-12-04
    📄
    appoint-person-director-company-with-name-date
    officers · AP01
  4. 2025-10-15
    ➕
    MARTIN, David appointed
    director
  5. 2025-09-23
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  6. 2024-10-21
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  7. 2024-02-27
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  8. 2023-02-09
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  9. 2022-03-29
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  10. 2021-05-25
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  11. 2019-12-12
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  12. 2018-11-14
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  13. 2018-02-27
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  14. 2016-12-06
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
    accounts · AA
  15. 2016-06-22
    📄
    annual-return-company-with-made-up-date-full-list-shareholders
    annual-return · AR01
  16. 2016-03-25
    📄
    mortgage-create-with-deed-with-charge-number-charge-creation-date
    mortgage · MR01
  17. 2016-03-23
    🔒
    Charge registered #2
    Lender: The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC
  18. 2016-03-17
    📄
    mortgage-create-with-deed-with-charge-number-charge-creation-date
    mortgage · MR01
  19. 2016-03-14
    🔒
    Charge registered #1
    Lender: The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC
  20. 1996-05-03
    ➕
    TAIT, Stuart Macfarlane appointed
    director
  21. 1994-05-04
    🏢
    Company incorporated
    As ACADIAN ENGINEERING LIMITED
  22. 1994-05-04
    ➕
    BLAMFORD, John Morris appointed
    secretary
  23. 1994-05-04
    ➕
    BLAMFORD, John Morris appointed
    director
  24. 1994-05-04
    ➕
    NIVEN, John David appointed
    director
  25. 1994-05-04
    ➕
    OSWALDS OF EDINBURGH LIMITED appointed
    corporate-nominee-secretary
  26. 1994-05-04
    ➖
    OSWALDS OF EDINBURGH LIMITED resigned
    corporate-nominee-secretary

Owner dependency

65/100
High — earn-out structure required

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

FACTORS
  • -4 active directors: Broader management team in place — suggests transferable governance.
  • +Long-tenure founder: Senior director has been in place 32 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
  • +Founder age: Director aged approximately 71 — succession pressure is live.

Succession & seller-readiness

80/100
Likely off-market candidate

Strong acquirability signals converging. Worth approaching directly — this is how off-market deals start.

SIGNALS
  • primaryFounder aged 70+: Senior director is approximately 71 years old. Natural succession window is now.
  • primary20+ year tenure: Director in role 32 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.)

Shareholders & ownership

2 active beneficial owners
NameSharesVoting rightsNature of controlNotified
Mr John David Niven
Individual · British · DOB 09/1963 · age 63
25–50%
—25-50% shares01/06/2016
Mr John Morris Blamford
Individual · British · DOB 07/1955 · age 71
25–50%
—25-50% shares01/06/2016

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.

See pricing →

Company details

Statusactive
Typeltd
Incorporated1994-05-04
Jurisdictionscotland
Primary SIC28930 — SIC 28930

Registered office

2 Melville Street
Falkirk
Central
FK1 1HZ

Filing status

Accounts
Next due: 2027-02-28
Last made up to: 2025-05-31
Confirmation statement
Next due: 2026-06-20
Last: 2025-06-06

Officers (5 active · 1 resigned)

BLAMFORD, John Morris→
secretary · appointed 1994-05-04
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
BLAMFORD, John Morris→
director · ~71y · appointed 1994-05-04
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
MARTIN, David→
director · ~35y · appointed 2025-10-15
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
NIVEN, John David→
director · ~63y · appointed 1994-05-04
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
TAIT, Stuart Macfarlane→
director · ~71y · appointed 1996-05-03
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
OSWALDS OF EDINBURGH LIMITED→
corporate-nominee-secretary · appointed 1994-05-04 · resigned 1994-05-04
Resigned

Click a director name to see their full track record across all companies.

Mortgages & charges

2
Total charges
2
Outstanding
1
Active lenders
Status:Lender:2 of 2 shown
TypeProperties
outstanding
Lloyds Banking Group
The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC
A registered charge1 property23/03/2016—
outstanding
Lloyds Banking Group
The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC
A registered charge—14/03/2016—
Click column headers to sort. Use filters above to narrow by status and lender.

Recent filings (77 total)

capital-cancellation-shares
capital · SH06
2026-04-20
resolution
resolution · RESOLUTIONS
2026-04-16
appoint-person-director-company-with-name-date
officers · AP01
2025-12-04
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2025-09-23
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2025-07-10
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2024-10-21
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2024-06-07
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2024-02-27
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2023-06-21
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2023-02-09
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2022-06-08
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2022-03-29
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2021-06-11
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2021-05-25
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2020-06-22