SIFT LIMITED

🌳Matureactive

03230061 · ltd · incorporated 1996-07-26

Investment thesis

Established operating company — standard diligence applies, no dominant angle.

Why interesting: Live, filing, normal profile.

Why risky: No standout signals in either direction.

🔒Estimated value

—

Upgrade to see

Turnover

—

year to Dec 2024

Net worth

—

book net assets

Opportunity

80/100

Exceptional

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What this business does

Primary activity: Other information technology service activities

Sector: Information & communication

Investor take

Pursue

Active trading company with a 65-year-old founder — textbook succession opportunity.

Opportunity 80/100 (exceptional), bankability 67/100. Strong seller-intent signal (63/100, director aged 65). Share purchase looks the cleaner deal structure. Biggest value-creation lever: Consolidate lender relationships. 7 distinct lenders creates friction — refinance into single-lender structure for cleaner diligence. Most likely exit: share sale to pe / searcher (65/100).

🏦

Refinance opportunity

11 live charges · 7 lenders · oldest 27.8y

25/100

too messy

Structure is too messy for a clean refinance right now — clean up first or expect bespoke terms.

· Oldest live charge is 27.8 years old — likely at or near maturity.
· 7 lenders named — inter-creditor friction likely.
· Legal-friction score 45/100 (high).

Data confidence

Overall: high (84/100)

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

Lenders & charges

11 charges (11/11 with lender, 11/11 with type)

Directors & officers

33 officers (5 active, 33 linked, 26 with DOB)

Ownership & PSC

3 active PSC(s) of 4 total, 4 with control declared

Director network

16 connected companies via shared directors

Filing history

288 filings on record

Gazette notices

No matching gazette notices (standard for active companies)

Opportunity Score

80/100Exceptional

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.

Key financials

2 years extracted from filed iXBRL accounts

Cash

—

Net Worth

—

Current Assets

—

Current Liabilities

—

Hover to see exact values · click legend to toggle series

Financials

Extracted from Companies House accounts · FRS 102

Metric	2024-12-31	2023-12-31
Average employees	4200	6300

Amounts extracted automatically from iXBRL. Fields left blank were not reported or not mapped. Values in GBP unless stated.

🔒Filing-note intelligence

4 signals 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

filings

• 2 capital
• 1 officers

Last 90 days

filings

• 3 capital
• 1 officers
• 1 incorporation

Last 180 days

filings

• 3 capital
• 1 officers
• 1 incorporation

Counts from Companies House filing history.

Corporate timeline (103 events)Click to expand

2026-05-21
📄
change-person-director-company-with-change-date
officers · CH01
2026-05-19
📄
capital-allotment-shares
capital · SH01
2026-05-14
📄
capital-allotment-shares
capital · SH01
2026-03-18
📄
memorandum-articles
incorporation · MA
2026-03-18
📄
resolution
resolution · RESOLUTIONS
2026-03-17
📄
capital-name-of-class-of-shares
capital · SH08
2025-09-30
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-group
accounts · AA
2025-07-11
📄
notification-of-a-person-with-significant-control
persons-with-significant-control · PSC02
2025-07-11
📄
cessation-of-a-person-with-significant-control
persons-with-significant-control · PSC07
2025-05-08
📄
change-to-a-person-with-significant-control
persons-with-significant-control · PSC05
2024-12-19
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-group
accounts · AA
2023-12-20
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-group
accounts · AA
2023-12-19
📄
appoint-person-director-company-with-name-date
officers · AP01
2023-12-19
📄
appoint-person-director-company-with-name-date
officers · AP01
2023-12-01
➕
WHITE, Louise Caroline appointed
director
2023-07-27
📄
change-to-a-person-with-significant-control
persons-with-significant-control · PSC05
2023-07-27
📄
change-to-a-person-with-significant-control
persons-with-significant-control · PSC05
2023-07-27
📄
change-to-a-person-with-significant-control
persons-with-significant-control · PSC04
2023-07-27
📄
change-person-director-company-with-change-date
officers · CH01
2023-07-01
➕
EVANS, Andrew appointed
director
2022-10-07
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-small
accounts · AA
2022-07-08
📄
change-person-director-company-with-change-date
officers · CH01
2022-06-24
📄
mortgage-create-with-deed-with-charge-number-charge-creation-date
mortgage · MR01
2022-06-23
🔒
Charge registered #11
Lender: Barclays Bank PLC
2019-12-03
🔓
Charge satisfied #10
2018-10-09
➖
FRASER-ALLEN, William Thomas resigned
director
2018-05-18
➖
PRISCOTT, Steven resigned
secretary
2018-05-18
➖
PRISCOTT, Steven resigned
director
2017-12-19
🔒
Charge registered #10
Lender: Creative England Limited
2017-05-17
🔓
Charge satisfied #9
2016-07-05
➕
FARISH, Stephen Graham appointed
director
2015-11-27
➕
DUNKERLEY, Thomas William appointed
director
2015-11-27
➖
PHIPPEN, Peter Sangster resigned
director
2015-05-08
🔒
Charge registered #9
Lender: Creative England Limited
2012-09-07
🔓
Charge satisfied #7
2012-08-30
🔓
Charge satisfied #6
2012-08-30
🔓
Charge satisfied #5
2012-08-30
🔓
Charge satisfied #4
2012-08-30
🔓
Charge satisfied #3
2012-08-30
🔓
Charge satisfied #2
2012-08-30
🔓
Charge satisfied #1
2012-03-30
➕
PHIPPEN, Peter Sangster appointed
director
2012-02-14
🔒
Charge registered #8
Lender: Barclays Bank PLC
2012-01-23
➖
TERRY, Barnaby Bruce Landen resigned
director
2011-07-06
➕
FRASER-ALLEN, William Thomas appointed
director
2011-07-06
➖
NEWMEDIA SPARK DIRECTORS LIMITED resigned
corporate-director
2010-04-28
➖
HOWARTH, Alan Miles resigned
director
2009-06-17
➕
NEWMEDIA SPARK DIRECTORS LIMITED appointed
corporate-director
2008-04-18
➕
HOWARTH, Alan Miles appointed
director
2008-04-17
➖
PASSMORE, Walter William resigned
director

Showing most recent 50 of 103 events

Owner dependency

65/100

High — earn-out structure required

Material founder dependency. Consider a 2-3 year earn-out and build in a handover plan before completion.

FACTORS

-5 active directors: Broader management team in place — suggests transferable governance.
+Long-tenure founder: Senior director has been in place 30 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
+Founder age: Director aged approximately 65 — succession pressure is live.

Succession & seller-readiness

70/100

Strong succession signal

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

SIGNALS

primaryFounder aged 63+: Senior director is approximately 65. Approaching typical UK retirement age — succession thinking likely.
primary20+ year tenure: Director in role 30 years. Very long tenure is a classic succession signal.
supportingClean filings + long tenure: Disciplined long-tenure operator — classic lifestyle-business pattern that often sells quietly.

Red flags

1 med ·

Charge satisfaction-then-recreation pattern

medium

Multiple instances where a charge was satisfied and a new charge created within 6 months. Suggests active refinancing cycle.

Group structure

2 corporate shareholders identified. Group structure is distributed.

🏛️

Albion Technology & General Vct Plc

Corporate parent · holds 25-50% shares

significant stake

🏛️

Albion Capital Group Llp

Corporate parent

⬇

SIFT LIMITED

This company · 03230061

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

Shareholders & ownership

3 active beneficial owners

Name	Shares	Voting rights	Nature of control	Notified
Albion Technology & General Vct Plc Corporate entity	25–50%	25–50%	25-50% shares · 25-50% voting	10/07/2025
Mr Ben Heald Individual · British · DOB 11/1961 · age 65	25–50%	25–50%	25-50% shares · 25-50% voting	06/04/2016
Albion Capital Group Llp Corporate entity	—	—	sig. influencesignificant influence	06/04/2016

1 historic (ceased) PSC

Albion Kay Vct Plcceased 10/07/2025· 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

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

Incorporated1996-07-26

Jurisdictionengland-wales

Primary SIC62090 — Other information technology service activities

Registered office

Floor 2 Charlotte Place

Queen Charlotte Street

Bristol

BS1 4EX

United Kingdom

Filing status

Accounts

Next due: 2026-09-30

Last made up to: 2024-12-31

Confirmation statement

Next due: 2026-09-03

Last: 2025-08-20