ASHDOWN TRADING LIMITED

🌳Matureactive
02569955 · ltd · incorporated 1990-12-20
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 11.7y old — refinance window within 12 months
🔒Estimated value
Upgrade to see
Turnover
year to Apr 2025
Net worth
£818.5k
book net assets
Opportunity
79/100
Strong
🔔
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What this business does
Primary activity: Credit granting by non-deposit taking finance houses and other specialist consumer credit grantors
Sector: Financial & insurance
Investor take
Pursue
Asset-holding vehicle with a 81-year-old founder — textbook succession opportunity.

Opportunity 79/100 (strong), bankability 85/100. Strong seller-intent signal (68/100, director aged 81). Share purchase looks the cleaner deal structure. Most likely exit: strategic trade sale (73/100).

🏦

Refinance opportunity

1 live charge · oldest 11.7y

85/100
ready

Refinance conversation should be productive — structure clean and timing right.

  • · Oldest live charge is 11.7 years old — likely at or near maturity.
  • · Single lender — cleanest path to refinance.
  • · Legal-friction score 15/100 — clean.

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
4 officers (3 active, 4 linked, 3 with DOB)
85
Ownership & PSC
2 active PSC(s) of 2 total, 2 with control declared
90
Director network
3 connected companies via shared directors
54
Filing history
104 filings on record
85
Gazette notices
No matching gazette notices (standard for active companies)
60
Opportunity Score
79/100Strong
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
100
Good data coverage for analysis.

Signals from accounts

Derived from iXBRL accounts · FRS 105 (micro)
Positive net assets
Net assets £818,550

Key financials

2 years extracted from filed iXBRL accounts
Cash
Net Worth
£819k
↑ 4.2% YoY
Current Assets
£991k
↓ 5.6% YoY
Current Liabilities
£0£210k£420k£630k£840k£1.0mApr 2024Apr 2025

Hover to see exact values · click legend to toggle series

Financials

Extracted from Companies House accounts · FRS 105 (micro)
Metric2025-04-302024-04-30
Total assets£818.5k£785.5k
Current assets£991.3k£1.05M
Net assets£818.5k£785.5k

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
0
filings
Counts from Companies House filing history.
Corporate timeline (21 events)Click to expand
  1. 2025-11-28
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  2. 2025-01-15
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  3. 2024-01-25
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  4. 2022-11-28
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  5. 2022-01-27
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  6. 2021-01-24
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  7. 2020-01-06
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  8. 2019-01-15
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  9. 2018-01-27
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  10. 2018-01-02
    📄
    change-person-director-company-with-change-date
    officers · CH01
  11. 2018-01-02
    📄
    change-person-secretary-company-with-change-date
    officers · CH03
  12. 2018-01-02
    📄
    change-person-director-company-with-change-date
    officers · CH01
  13. 2018-01-02
    📄
    change-to-a-person-with-significant-control
    persons-with-significant-control · PSC04
  14. 2018-01-02
    📄
    change-to-a-person-with-significant-control
    persons-with-significant-control · PSC05
  15. 2017-05-08
    📍
    change-registered-office-address-company-with-date-old-address-new-address
    address · AD01
  16. 2016-12-29
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
    accounts · AA
  17. 2016-01-04
    🔓
    Charge satisfied #1
  18. 2014-11-18
    🔒
    Charge registered #1
    Lender: Aib Group (UK) PLC
  19. 1992-05-08
    GOULD, Nicholas Simon Barry resigned
    director
  20. 1992-05-07
    GOULD, Nicholas Simon Barry appointed
    director
  21. 1990-12-20
    🏢
    Company incorporated
    As ASHDOWN TRADING LIMITED

Owner dependency

81/100
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.
  • +Founder age: Director aged approximately 81 — succession pressure is live.
  • +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
  • primaryFounder aged 70+: Senior director is approximately 81 years old. Natural succession window is now.
  • secondaryTwo-director governance: Small-team governance. Succession depth is thin but not absent.
  • secondaryStable-but-static management: Company is 36 years old and no new directors in the last 3 years — succession not yet being planned internally.

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

Ashdown Investments Limited is the ultimate parent — holding 75%+ shares. This company sits inside their group.

🏛️
Ashdown Investments Limited
Corporate parent · holds 75-100% shares
ultimate parent
ASHDOWN TRADING LIMITED
This company · 02569955

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

Shareholders & ownership

2 active beneficial owners · dominant holder ≥75%
NameSharesVoting rightsNature of controlNotified
Ashdown Investments Limited
Corporate entity
75100%
75-100% shares06/04/2016
Mr Barry John Sutton
Individual · British · DOB 06/1945 · age 81
sig. influencesignificant influence06/04/2016

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

7 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
Incorporated1990-12-20
Jurisdictionengland-wales
Primary SIC64921 — Credit granting by non-deposit taking finance houses and other specialist consumer credit grantors

Registered office

24a Eastwell Barn Mews
Tenterden
TN30 6QW
England

Filing status

Accounts
Next due: 2027-01-31
Last made up to: 2025-04-30
Confirmation statement
Next due: 2027-01-03
Last: 2025-12-20

Officers (3 active · 1 resigned)

SUTTON, Annette Margaret
secretary
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
SUTTON, Annette Margaret
director · ~73y
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
SUTTON, Barry John
director · ~81y
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
GOULD, Nicholas Simon Barry
director · ~70y · appointed 1992-05-07 · resigned 1992-05-08
Resigned

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

Mortgages & charges

1
Total charges
0
Outstanding
0
Active lenders
Status:Lender:1 of 1 shown
TypeProperties
satisfied
Aib Group (UK)
Aib Group (UK) PLC
A registered charge18/11/201404/01/2016

Recent filings (104 total)

confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2025-12-22
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2025-11-28
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2025-01-15
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2024-12-20
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2024-01-25
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2023-12-21
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2022-12-20
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2022-11-28
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2022-01-27
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2022-01-26
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2021-01-24
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2020-12-21
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2020-01-06
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2019-12-23
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2019-01-15