MACDONALD THORNTON LIMITED

🌳Matureactive

SC291749 · ltd · incorporated 2005-10-17

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.

Why now

Window steady · low confidence

Steady and tidy — no seller pressure yet. Approach only if an angle opens.

Opportunity decay

approaching window · 12-months

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

· Oldest live charge 19.6y old — refinance window within 12 months

What changed my view

Last 30 days

No material changes in the last 30 days.

Last 90 days

No snapshot from 90 days ago — start tracking from today.

Last 180 days

No snapshot from 180 days ago — start tracking from today.

🔒Estimated value

—

Upgrade to see

Turnover

—

year to Mar 2025

Net worth

£534.3k

book net assets

Opportunity

82/100

Exceptional

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What this business does

Primary activity: Other accommodation

Sector: Accommodation & food service

Investor take

Pursue

Active trading company with a 63-year-old founder — textbook succession opportunity.

Opportunity 82/100 (exceptional), bankability 80/100. Strong seller-intent signal (70/100, director aged 63). 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 (65/100).

🏦

Refinance opportunity

1 live charge · oldest 19.6y

65/100

clean up first

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

· Oldest live charge is 19.6 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 (77/100)

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

Lenders & charges

1 charges (1/1 with lender, 1/1 with type)

Directors & officers

3 officers (3 active, 3 linked, 2 with DOB)

Ownership & PSC

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

Director network

Network not yet resolved

Filing history

50 filings on record

Gazette notices

No matching gazette notices (standard for active companies)

Opportunity Score

82/100Exceptional

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.

Signals from accounts

Derived from iXBRL accounts · accounting standard not declared

Positive net assets

Net assets £534,261

Key financials

2 years extracted from filed iXBRL accounts

Cash

—

Net Worth

£534k

~ YoY

Current Assets

£53k

↑ 8.9% YoY

Current Liabilities

—

Hover to see exact values · click legend to toggle series

Financials

Extracted from Companies House accounts · accounting standard unknown

Metric	2025-03-31	2024-03-31
Total assets	£534.3k	£530.1k
Current assets	£52.6k	£48.3k
Net assets	£534.3k	£530.1k

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

filings

Last 180 days

filing

• 1 accounts

Counts from Companies House filing history.

Corporate timeline (20 events)Click to expand

2025-12-29
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2024-12-24
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accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2023-12-18
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accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2022-11-07
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accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2021-11-30
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accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2020-12-23
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2019-11-20
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2018-12-24
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2018-02-27
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accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2016-12-28
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accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
accounts · AA
2016-01-06
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
accounts · AA
2015-11-18
📄
annual-return-company-with-made-up-date-full-list-shareholders
annual-return · AR01
2015-02-02
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
accounts · AA
2014-12-19
📄
annual-return-company-with-made-up-date-full-list-shareholders
annual-return · AR01
2013-12-18
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
accounts · AA
2006-11-23
🔒
Charge registered #1
Lender: Adam & Company PLC
2005-10-17
🏢
Company incorporated
As MACDONALD THORNTON LIMITED
2005-10-17
➕
BAXTER, Sally Louise appointed
secretary
2005-10-17
➕
BAXTER, Rodney Thomas appointed
director
2005-10-17
➕
BAXTER, Sally Louise appointed
director

Owner dependency

84/100

Critical — business is the founder

The business appears inseparable from the founder. Acquisition without a serious earn-out or meaningful transition period would likely destroy value.

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 21 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
+Senior director age: Director aged approximately 63 — approaching natural succession window.
+Family involvement: Multiple officers share a surname — likely family business, which concentrates governance.

Succession & seller-readiness

86/100

Likely off-market candidate

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

SIGNALS

primaryFounder aged 63+: Senior director is approximately 63. Approaching typical UK retirement age — succession thinking likely.
secondaryTwo-director governance: Small-team governance. Succession depth is thin but not absent.
primary20+ year tenure: Director in role 21 years. Very long tenure is a classic succession signal.
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.)

Shareholders & ownership

1 active beneficial owner

Name	Shares	Voting rights	Nature of control	Notified
Mr Rodney Thomas Baxter Individual · British · DOB 06/1963 · age 63	50–75%	—	50-75% shares	06/04/2016

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

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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.

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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

Incorporated2005-10-17

Jurisdictionscotland

Primary SIC55900 — Other accommodation

Registered office

65 Sheuchan Street

Stranraer

DG9 0EE

Filing status

Accounts

Next due: 2026-12-31

Last made up to: 2025-03-31

Confirmation statement

Next due: 2026-10-15

Last: 2025-10-01

Officers (3 active · 0 resigned)

BAXTER, Sally Louise→

secretary · appointed 2005-10-17

View their other companies + combined net worth →

Active

BAXTER, Rodney Thomas→

director · ~63y · appointed 2005-10-17

View their other companies + combined net worth →

Active

BAXTER, Sally Louise→

director · ~61y · appointed 2005-10-17

View their other companies + combined net worth →

Active

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

Mortgages & charges

Total charges

Outstanding

Active lenders

Status:Lender:1 of 1 shown

			Type	Properties
	outstanding	Adam & Company Adam & Company PLC	Standard security	1 property	23/11/2006	—

Click column headers to sort. Use filters above to narrow by status and lender.