ABWOOD MACHINE TOOLS LIMITED

🌳Matureactive
01730319 · ltd · incorporated 1983-06-09
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 29.0y old — refinance window within 12 months
🔒Estimated value
—
Upgrade to see
Turnover
—
year to Dec 2024
Net worth
—
book net assets
Opportunity
82/100
Exceptional
🔔
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What this business does
Primary activity: SIC 99999
Sector: Extraterritorial bodies
Investor take
Pursue
Active trading company with a 62-year-old founder — textbook succession opportunity.

Opportunity 82/100 (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 (65/100).

🏦

Refinance opportunity

1 live charge · oldest 29.0y

65/100
clean up first

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

  • · Oldest live charge is 29.0 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 (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
1 charges (1/1 with lender, 1/1 with type)
90
Directors & officers
7 officers (3 active, 7 linked, 5 with DOB)
84
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
121 filings on record
85
Gazette notices
No matching gazette notices (standard for active companies)
60
Opportunity Score
82/100Exceptional
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
80
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£0£0£0£0£0Dec 2023Dec 2024

Hover to see exact values · click legend to toggle series

Financials

Extracted from Companies House accounts · FRS 102
Metric2024-12-312023-12-31
Average employees3300

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
0
filings
Last 180 days
5
filings
  • • 3 officers
  • • 1 persons-with-significant-control
  • • 1 confirmation-statement
Counts from Companies House filing history.
Corporate timeline (25 events)Click to expand
  1. 2026-02-09
    📄
    change-to-a-person-with-significant-control
    persons-with-significant-control · PSC05
  2. 2026-01-29
    📄
    change-person-director-company-with-change-date
    officers · CH01
  3. 2026-01-29
    📄
    change-person-director-company-with-change-date
    officers · CH01
  4. 2026-01-29
    📄
    change-person-secretary-company-with-change-date
    officers · CH03
  5. 2025-09-02
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-dormant
    accounts · AA
  6. 2025-08-14
    📍
    change-registered-office-address-company-with-date-old-address-new-address
    address · AD01
  7. 2024-09-26
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-dormant
    accounts · AA
  8. 2023-10-10
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-dormant
    accounts · AA
  9. 2022-10-04
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  10. 2021-12-07
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  11. 2020-12-02
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  12. 2019-10-03
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  13. 2018-10-04
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  14. 2017-11-01
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  15. 2016-10-03
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
    accounts · AA
  16. 2011-12-31
    ➖
    STANFIELD, William resigned
    director
  17. 2010-04-12
    ➕
    NICHOLAS, Robert Wilson appointed
    director
  18. 2010-04-12
    ➖
    SUCKLING, Geoffrey James resigned
    director
  19. 2006-09-01
    ➕
    WRIGHT, Mary Irene appointed
    secretary
  20. 2006-08-31
    ➖
    SLATER, Katherine resigned
    secretary
  21. 1998-08-18
    ➕
    NICHOLAS, Christopher Paul appointed
    director
  22. 1997-07-01
    🔒
    Charge registered #1
    Lender: Barclays Bank PLC
  23. 1992-12-23
    ➖
    ARNOLD, Keith John resigned
    director
  24. 1992-02-23
    ➕
    STANFIELD, William appointed
    director
  25. 1983-06-09
    🏢
    Company incorporated
    As ABWOOD MACHINE TOOLS LIMITED

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 28 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
  • +Senior director age: Director aged approximately 62 — approaching natural succession window.
  • +Family involvement: Multiple officers share a surname — likely family business, which concentrates governance.

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 62. Early succession window.
  • secondaryTwo-director governance: Small-team governance. Succession depth is thin but not absent.
  • primary20+ year tenure: Director in role 28 years. Very long tenure is a classic succession signal.
  • secondaryStable-but-static management: Company is 43 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

Atlanta Trust Ltd is the ultimate parent — holding 75%+ shares. This company sits inside their group.

🏛️
Atlanta Trust Ltd
Corporate parent · holds 75-100% shares
ultimate parent
⬇
ABWOOD MACHINE TOOLS LIMITED
This company · 01730319

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

Shareholders & ownership

1 active beneficial owner · dominant holder ≥75%
NameSharesVoting rightsNature of controlNotified
Atlanta Trust Ltd
Corporate entity
75–100%
—75-100% shares06/04/2016

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

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
Incorporated1983-06-09
Jurisdictionengland-wales
Primary SIC99999 — SIC 99999

Registered office

Units B2-B6 Barnfield Business Park
Barnfield Road
Folkestone
Kent
CT19 5SG
England

Filing status

Accounts
Next due: 2026-09-30
Last made up to: 2024-12-31
Confirmation statement
Next due: 2027-01-14
Last: 2025-12-31

Officers (3 active · 4 resigned)

WRIGHT, Mary Irene→
secretary · appointed 2006-09-01
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
NICHOLAS, Christopher Paul→
director · ~62y · appointed 1998-08-18
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
NICHOLAS, Robert Wilson→
director · ~45y · appointed 2010-04-12
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
SLATER, Katherine→
secretary · resigned 2006-08-31
Resigned
ARNOLD, Keith John→
director · ~92y · resigned 1992-12-23
Resigned
STANFIELD, William→
director · ~100y · appointed 1992-02-23 · resigned 2011-12-31
Resigned
SUCKLING, Geoffrey James→
director · ~102y · resigned 2010-04-12
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
Barclays
Barclays Bank PLC
Debenture1 property01/07/1997—
Click column headers to sort. Use filters above to narrow by status and lender.

Recent filings (121 total)

change-to-a-person-with-significant-control
persons-with-significant-control · PSC05
2026-02-09
change-person-director-company-with-change-date
officers · CH01
2026-01-29
change-person-director-company-with-change-date
officers · CH01
2026-01-29
change-person-secretary-company-with-change-date
officers · CH03
2026-01-29
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2026-01-09
accounts-with-accounts-type-dormant
accounts · AA
2025-09-02
change-registered-office-address-company-with-date-old-address-new-address
address · AD01
2025-08-14
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2025-01-10
accounts-with-accounts-type-dormant
accounts · AA
2024-09-26
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2024-01-03
accounts-with-accounts-type-dormant
accounts · AA
2023-10-10
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2023-01-02
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2022-10-04
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2022-01-26
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2021-12-07