ABACUS FINANCIAL MARKETING LIMITED

🌳Matureactive
SC197503 · ltd · incorporated 1999-06-24
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 26.4y old — refinance window within 12 months
🔒Estimated value
—
Upgrade to see
Turnover
—
year to Dec 2025
Net worth
£3.4k
book net assets
Opportunity
83/100
Exceptional
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What this business does
Primary activity: Management consultancy activities other than financial management
Sector: Professional, scientific & technical
Investor take
Pursue
Strong opportunity: active trading company with exceptional profile and bankable structure.

Opportunity 83/100 (exceptional), bankability 80/100. Strong seller-intent signal (70/100, director aged 59). Share purchase looks the cleaner deal structure. Biggest value-creation lever: Discharge stale live charges. 1 live charge(s) created 15+ years ago — likely paid but undischarged. Clean register. Most likely exit: share sale to pe / searcher (73/100).

🏦

Refinance opportunity

1 live charge · oldest 26.4y

65/100
clean up first

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

  • · Oldest live charge is 26.4 years old — likely at or near maturity.
  • · Single lender — cleanest path to refinance.
  • · Legal-friction score 25/100 — workable, but lender will want more DD.

Data confidence

Overall: high (80/100)

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
75
Lenders & charges
1 charges (1/1 with lender, 1/1 with type)
90
Directors & officers
6 officers (2 active, 6 linked, 3 with DOB)
80
Ownership & PSC
2 active PSC(s) of 2 total, 2 with control declared
90
Director network
6 connected companies via shared directors
63
Filing history
92 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.

Signals from accounts

Derived from iXBRL accounts · accounting standard not declared
Positive net assets
Net assets £3,400

Key financials

2 years extracted from filed iXBRL accounts
Cash
—
Net Worth
£3k
~ YoY
Current Assets
£543
~ YoY
Current Liabilities
—
£0£680£1k£2k£3k£3kDec 2024Dec 2025

Hover to see exact values · click legend to toggle series

Financials

Extracted from Companies House accounts · accounting standard unknown
Metric2025-12-312024-12-31
Total assets£3.4k£3.4k
Current assets£543£543
Net assets£3.4k£3.4k

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

Recent activity

Last 30 days
0
filings
Last 90 days
1
filing
  • • 1 accounts
Last 180 days
1
filing
  • • 1 accounts
Counts from Companies House filing history.
Corporate timeline (28 events)Click to expand
  1. 2026-02-16
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  2. 2025-02-04
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  3. 2024-04-08
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  4. 2023-06-19
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  5. 2022-06-21
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  6. 2021-08-26
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  7. 2020-06-19
    📄
    termination-secretary-company-with-name-termination-date
    officers · TM02
  8. 2020-06-10
    ➖
    HALLIDAY CAMPBELL WS resigned
    corporate-secretary
  9. 2020-02-25
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  10. 2019-05-14
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  11. 2018-08-14
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  12. 2017-08-17
    📄
    change-person-director-company-with-change-date
    officers · CH01
  13. 2017-08-17
    📄
    notification-of-a-person-with-significant-control
    persons-with-significant-control · PSC01
  14. 2017-08-17
    📄
    notification-of-a-person-with-significant-control
    persons-with-significant-control · PSC01
  15. 2017-05-22
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  16. 2016-06-24
    📄
    annual-return-company-with-made-up-date-full-list-shareholders
    annual-return · AR01
  17. 2016-04-29
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
    accounts · AA
  18. 2008-10-22
    ➖
    BOYDSLAW (SECRETARIAL SERVICES) LIMITED resigned
    corporate-secretary
  19. 2008-10-22
    ➕
    HALLIDAY CAMPBELL WS appointed
    corporate-secretary
  20. 1999-12-06
    🔒
    Charge registered #2
    Lender: The Governor and Company of the Bank of Scotland
  21. 1999-07-09
    ➕
    FERGUSON, David Ritchie appointed
    director
  22. 1999-07-09
    ➕
    MARTIN, Philip Torbet appointed
    director
  23. 1999-07-09
    ➕
    BOYDSLAW (SECRETARIAL SERVICES) LIMITED appointed
    corporate-secretary
  24. 1999-07-09
    ➖
    ORR MACQUEEN W S resigned
    corporate-secretary
  25. 1999-07-09
    ➖
    HALLIDAY, David James Finlay resigned
    director
  26. 1999-06-24
    🏢
    Company incorporated
    As ABACUS FINANCIAL MARKETING LIMITED
  27. 1999-06-24
    ➕
    ORR MACQUEEN W S appointed
    corporate-secretary
  28. 1999-06-24
    ➕
    HALLIDAY, David James Finlay appointed
    director

Owner dependency

76/100
High — earn-out structure required

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

FACTORS
  • +Two-director setup: Only two active directors — typical of owner-managed SMEs but limits succession.
  • +Long-tenure founder: Senior director has been in place 27 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
  • +Senior director age: Director aged approximately 59 — approaching natural succession window.

Succession & seller-readiness

76/100
Likely off-market candidate

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

SIGNALS
  • secondaryFounder aged 58+: Senior director is approximately 59. Early succession window.
  • secondaryTwo-director governance: Small-team governance. Succession depth is thin but not absent.
  • primary20+ year tenure: Director in role 27 years. Very long tenure is a classic succession signal.
  • secondaryStable-but-static management: Company is 27 years old and no new directors in the last 3 years — succession not yet being planned internally.
  • 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 Philip Torbet Martin
Individual · British · DOB 08/1967 · age 59
25–50%
25–50%sig. influence25-50% shares · 25-50% voting · significant influence · firm interest17/08/2017
Mr David Ritchie Ferguson
Individual · British · DOB 12/1969 · age 57
25–50%
25–50%sig. influence25-50% shares · 25-50% voting · significant influence · firm interest17/08/2017

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

6 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
Incorporated1999-06-24
Jurisdictionscotland
Primary SIC70229 — Management consultancy activities other than financial management

Registered office

1 Nelson Street
Edinburgh
EH3 6LF

Filing status

Accounts
Next due: 2027-09-30
Last made up to: 2025-12-31
Confirmation statement
Next due: 2026-07-03
Last: 2025-06-19

Officers (2 active · 4 resigned)

FERGUSON, David Ritchie→
director · ~57y · appointed 1999-07-09
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
MARTIN, Philip Torbet→
director · ~59y · appointed 1999-07-09
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
BOYDSLAW (SECRETARIAL SERVICES) LIMITED→
corporate-secretary · appointed 1999-07-09 · resigned 2008-10-22
Resigned
HALLIDAY CAMPBELL WS→
corporate-secretary · appointed 2008-10-22 · resigned 2020-06-10
Resigned
ORR MACQUEEN W S→
corporate-secretary · appointed 1999-06-24 · resigned 1999-07-09
Resigned
HALLIDAY, David James Finlay→
director · ~64y · appointed 1999-06-24 · resigned 1999-07-09
Resigned

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

Mortgages & charges

1
Total charges
1
Outstanding
1
Active lenders
Status:Lender:1 of 1 shown
TypeProperties
outstanding
Lloyds Banking Group
The Governor and Company of the Bank of Scotland
Bond & floating charge1 property06/12/1999—
Click column headers to sort. Use filters above to narrow by status and lender.

Recent filings (92 total)

accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2026-02-16
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2025-06-21
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2025-02-04
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2024-06-23
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2024-04-08
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2023-06-19
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2023-06-19
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2022-06-21
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2022-06-21
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2021-08-26
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2021-06-19
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2020-06-19
termination-secretary-company-with-name-termination-date
officers · TM02
2020-06-19
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2020-02-25
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2019-06-21