ADVANCED SPEECH SOLUTIONS LIMITED

💤Zombieactive
SC520317 · ltd · incorporated 2015-11-13
Investment thesis
Zombie company — trading but stalled; unlikely mover.
Why interesting: Quiet, steady; could be a succession or carve-out candidate with the right conversation.
Why risky: No growth signal; thin margin for error on price.
🔒Estimated value
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Turnover
year to Nov 2025
Net worth
£-29.3k
book net assets
Opportunity
78/100
Strong
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What this business does
Primary activity: Book publishing
Sector: Information & communication
ALSO REGISTERED FOR
  • 58290Other software publishing
  • 62012Business and domestic software development
Investor take
Pass (distressed without resilience)
Distressed active trading company — structural issues outweigh the discount.

Opportunity 78/100 (strong), bankability 75/100. Strong seller-intent signal (68/100, director aged 70). Share purchase looks the cleaner deal structure. Biggest value-creation lever: Broaden director team. Sole director creates succession risk and reduces buyer comfort. Appoint a second director or strong #2. Most likely exit: share sale to pe / searcher (73/100).

Data confidence

Overall: medium (78/100)

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

Company profile
address, 3 SIC codes, incorporation date
100
Financials
2 years of iXBRL accounts extracted (YoY deltas available) + narrative notes parsed
75
Lenders & charges
Confirmed no charges registered
85
Directors & officers
2 officers (2 active, 2 linked, 1 with DOB)
80
Ownership & PSC
1 active PSC(s) of 1 total, 1 with control declared
90
Director network
1 connected companies via shared directors
48
Filing history
21 filings on record
85
Gazette notices
No matching gazette notices (standard for active companies)
60
Opportunity Score
78/100Strong
PassWatchWorth a lookStrongExceptional 

Solid opportunity signal. Worth a dedicated memo and management meeting.

Business quality
70
Active, clean filings, stable charge profile.
Acquirability
70
Strong succession / seller-readiness signals.
Risk profile
85
Few red flags.
Signal strength
90
Good data coverage for analysis.

Signals from accounts

Derived from iXBRL accounts · accounting standard not declared
Negative net assets
Liabilities exceed assets by £29,331

Key financials

2 years extracted from filed iXBRL accounts
Cash
Net Worth
-£29k
↓ 15% YoY
Current Assets
Current Liabilities
-£29k-£23k-£18k-£12k-£6k£0Nov 2024Nov 2025

Hover to see exact values · click legend to toggle series

Financials

Extracted from Companies House accounts · accounting standard unknown
Metric2025-11-302024-11-30
Total assets£-29.3k£-25.6k
Current assets£0
Net assets£-29.3k£-25.6k

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
2
filings
  • 1 accounts
  • 1 confirmation-statement
Counts from Companies House filing history.
Corporate timeline (14 events)Click to expand
  1. 2026-02-01
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  2. 2025-07-26
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  3. 2024-07-04
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  4. 2023-08-10
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  5. 2022-08-22
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  6. 2021-06-28
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  7. 2020-08-29
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  8. 2019-08-15
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  9. 2018-08-29
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  10. 2017-09-25
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  11. 2015-11-13
    🏢
    Company incorporated
    As ADVANCED SPEECH SOLUTIONS LIMITED
  12. 2015-11-13
    LYDEN, John appointed
    secretary
  13. 2015-11-13
    LYDEN, John appointed
    director
  14. 2015-11-13
    📄
    incorporation-company
    incorporation · NEWINC

Owner dependency

95/100
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
  • +Sole director: Only one active director — all governance concentrated on one person.
  • +Founder age: Director aged approximately 70 — succession pressure is live.
  • +No director turnover: Company is 10 years old with no director changes — suggests a very tight-knit founder team never broadened.

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 70 years old. Natural succession window is now.
  • primarySole active director: Only one director in control. No visible successor — buyers solve the succession problem.
  • 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 · dominant holder ≥75%
NameSharesVoting rightsNature of controlNotified
Mr John Lyden
Individual · British · DOB 12/1956 · age 70
75100%
75-100% shares11/11/2016

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.

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Peers ranked by estimated value, then turnover, then opportunity score.See all →
🔒Tailored diligence questions

8 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
Incorporated2015-11-13
Jurisdictionscotland
Primary SIC58110 — Book publishing

Registered office

34 Kirkwood Avenue
Clydebank
West Dunbartonshire
G81 2SX
Scotland

Filing status

Accounts
Next due: 2027-08-31
Last made up to: 2025-11-30
Confirmation statement
Next due: 2026-11-13
Last: 2025-10-30

Officers (2 active · 0 resigned)

LYDEN, John
secretary · appointed 2015-11-13
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
LYDEN, John
director · ~70y · appointed 2015-11-13
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active

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

Recent filings (21 total)

accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2026-02-01
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2025-10-30
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2025-07-26
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2024-11-08
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2024-07-04
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2023-11-13
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2023-08-10
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2022-11-17
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2022-08-22
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2021-11-12
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2021-06-28
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2020-11-14
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2020-08-29
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2019-11-12
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2019-08-15