AUSTIN LAFFERTY LIMITED

🌳Matureactive
SC277684 · ltd · incorporated 2004-12-21
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 19.3y old — refinance window within 12 months
🔒Estimated value
—
Upgrade to see
Turnover
—
year to Dec 2025
Net worth
£745.0k
book net assets
Opportunity
83/100
Exceptional
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What this business does
Primary activity: Solicitors
Sector: Professional, scientific & technical
Investor take
Pursue
Active trading company with a 62-year-old founder — textbook succession opportunity.

Opportunity 83/100 (exceptional), bankability 80/100. Strong seller-intent signal (70/100, director aged 62). 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 19.3y

65/100
clean up first

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

  • · Oldest live charge is 19.3 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: medium (72/100)

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
1 year of iXBRL accounts extracted (no YoY comparison) + narrative notes parsed
50
Lenders & charges
1 charges (1/1 with lender, 1/1 with type)
90
Directors & officers
4 officers (2 active, 4 linked, 3 with DOB)
85
Ownership & PSC
2 active PSC(s) of 4 total, 4 with control declared
90
Director network
3 connected companies via shared directors
54
Filing history
73 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 £745,016

Key financials

1 year extracted from filed iXBRL accounts
Cash
£5.7m
Net Worth
£745k
Current Assets
£11m
Current Liabilities
—

Financials

Extracted from Companies House accounts · accounting standard unknown
Metric2025-12-31
Total assets£762.0k
Current assets£11.18M
Cash£5.69M
Debtors£5.48M
Net assets£745.0k

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
0
filings
Last 90 days
1
filing
  • • 1 accounts
Last 180 days
2
filings
  • • 1 accounts
  • • 1 confirmation-statement
Counts from Companies House filing history.
Corporate timeline (29 events)Click to expand
  1. 2026-03-17
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-unaudited-abridged
    accounts · AA
  2. 2025-05-16
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-unaudited-abridged
    accounts · AA
  3. 2024-09-27
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-unaudited-abridged
    accounts · AA
  4. 2024-01-09
    📄
    memorandum-articles
    incorporation · MA
  5. 2024-01-09
    📄
    resolution
    resolution · RESOLUTIONS
  6. 2024-01-05
    📄
    resolution
    resolution · RESOLUTIONS
  7. 2024-01-05
    📄
    notification-of-a-person-with-significant-control
    persons-with-significant-control · PSC02
  8. 2024-01-05
    📄
    notification-of-a-person-with-significant-control
    persons-with-significant-control · PSC02
  9. 2024-01-04
    📄
    cessation-of-a-person-with-significant-control
    persons-with-significant-control · PSC07
  10. 2024-01-04
    📄
    capital-allotment-shares
    capital · SH01
  11. 2023-09-07
    📍
    change-registered-office-address-company-with-date-old-address-new-address
    address · AD01
  12. 2023-06-29
    📄
    capital-name-of-class-of-shares
    capital · SH08
  13. 2023-06-28
    📄
    resolution
    resolution · RESOLUTIONS
  14. 2023-04-06
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  15. 2023-01-04
    📄
    appoint-person-director-company-with-name-date
    officers · AP01
  16. 2023-01-04
    📄
    termination-director-company-with-name-termination-date
    officers · TM01
  17. 2022-12-31
    ➕
    AHMED, Omair Maubeen appointed
    director
  18. 2022-12-31
    ➖
    LAFFERTY, Austin Joseph resigned
    director
  19. 2022-12-15
    📄
    memorandum-articles
    incorporation · MA
  20. 2022-12-15
    📄
    resolution
    resolution · RESOLUTIONS
  21. 2022-10-18
    📄
    capital-cancellation-shares
    capital · SH06
  22. 2022-10-18
    📄
    capital-return-purchase-own-shares
    capital · SH03
  23. 2022-09-28
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  24. 2022-08-25
    ➖
    LAFFERTY, Yvonne resigned
    secretary
  25. 2007-01-08
    🔒
    Charge registered #1
    Lender: Clydesdale Bank Public Limited Company
  26. 2006-05-01
    ➕
    ROBERTS, John Simpson appointed
    director
  27. 2004-12-21
    🏢
    Company incorporated
    As AUSTIN LAFFERTY LIMITED
  28. 2004-12-21
    ➕
    LAFFERTY, Yvonne appointed
    secretary
  29. 2004-12-21
    ➕
    LAFFERTY, Austin Joseph 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 20 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
  • +Senior director age: Director aged approximately 62 — approaching natural succession window.

Succession & seller-readiness

69/100
Strong succession signal

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

SIGNALS
  • secondaryFounder aged 58+: Senior director is approximately 62. Early succession window.
  • secondaryTwo-director governance: Small-team governance. Succession depth is thin but not absent.
  • secondary12+ year tenure: Director in role 20 years.
  • secondaryStable-but-static management: Company is 21 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.)

Group structure

2 corporate shareholders identified. Group structure is distributed.

🏛️
Oa Legal Ltd
Corporate parent · holds 25-50% shares
significant stake
🏛️
Jsr Legal Ltd
Corporate parent · holds 50-75% shares
majority
⬇
AUSTIN LAFFERTY LIMITED
This company · SC277684

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

Shareholders & ownership

2 active beneficial owners
NameSharesVoting rightsNature of controlNotified
Jsr Legal Ltd
Corporate entity
50–75%
25–50%50-75% shares · 50-75% voting06/06/2023
Oa Legal Ltd
Corporate entity
25–50%
25–50%25-50% shares · 25-50% voting06/06/2023
2 historic (ceased) PSCs
  • Mr John Simpson Robertsceased 06/06/2023· 75-100% shares · 75-100% voting
  • Mr Austin Joseph Laffertyceased 25/08/2022· 25-50% shares · 25-50% voting

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
Incorporated2004-12-21
Jurisdictionscotland
Primary SIC69102 — Solicitors

Registered office

37 Portland Road
Kilmarnock
KA1 2DJ
Scotland

Filing status

Accounts
Next due: 2027-09-30
Last made up to: 2025-12-31
Confirmation statement
Next due: 2027-01-04
Last: 2025-12-21

Officers (2 active · 2 resigned)

AHMED, Omair Maubeen→
director · ~41y · appointed 2022-12-31
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
ROBERTS, John Simpson→
director · ~62y · appointed 2006-05-01
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
LAFFERTY, Yvonne→
secretary · appointed 2004-12-21 · resigned 2022-08-25
Resigned
LAFFERTY, Austin Joseph→
director · ~67y · appointed 2004-12-21 · resigned 2022-12-31
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
Virgin Money
Clydesdale Bank Public Limited Company
Floating charge1 property08/01/2007—
Click column headers to sort. Use filters above to narrow by status and lender.

Recent filings (73 total)

accounts-with-accounts-type-unaudited-abridged
accounts · AA
2026-03-17
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2026-01-07
accounts-with-accounts-type-unaudited-abridged
accounts · AA
2025-05-16
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2024-12-23
accounts-with-accounts-type-unaudited-abridged
accounts · AA
2024-09-27
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2024-01-10
memorandum-articles
incorporation · MA
2024-01-09
resolution
resolution · RESOLUTIONS
2024-01-09
resolution
resolution · RESOLUTIONS
2024-01-05
notification-of-a-person-with-significant-control
persons-with-significant-control · PSC02
2024-01-05
notification-of-a-person-with-significant-control
persons-with-significant-control · PSC02
2024-01-05
cessation-of-a-person-with-significant-control
persons-with-significant-control · PSC07
2024-01-04
capital-allotment-shares
capital · SH01
2024-01-04
change-registered-office-address-company-with-date-old-address-new-address
address · AD01
2023-09-07
capital-name-of-class-of-shares
capital · SH08
2023-06-29