AC & CE SKELTON LIMITED
🌳Matureactive
04548986 · ltd · incorporated 2002-09-30
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.
Opportunity decay
approaching window · 12-months
Approaching a transaction window — refinance or sale event plausible in the next 12 months.
- · Oldest live charge 23.5y old — refinance window within 12 months
🔒Estimated value
—
Upgrade to see
Turnover
—
year to Mar 2025
Net worth
£352.6k
book net assets
Opportunity
82/100
Exceptional
What this business does
Primary activity: Freight transport by road
Sector: Transportation & storage
Investor take
PursueActive trading company with a 65-year-old founder — textbook succession opportunity.
Opportunity 82/100 (exceptional), bankability 80/100. Strong seller-intent signal (83/100, director aged 65). 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 23.5y
65/100
clean up first
Refinance viable after a tidy-up — address the highlighted items first.
- · Oldest live charge is 23.5 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 (61/100)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
1 year of iXBRL accounts extracted (no YoY comparison) + narrative notes parsed
50
Lenders & charges
1 charges (1/1 with lender, 1/1 with type)
90
Directors & officers
5 officers (3 active, 5 linked, 2 with DOB)
78
Ownership & PSC
No PSCs filed (unusual — worth investigating)
35
Director network
Network not yet resolved
30
Filing history
55 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.
Signals from accounts
Derived from iXBRL accounts · accounting standard not declaredPositive net assets
Net assets £352,561
Key financials
1 year extracted from filed iXBRL accountsCash
£274k
Net Worth
£353k
Current Assets
£400k
Current Liabilities
—
Financials
Extracted from Companies House accounts · accounting standard unknown| Metric | 2025-03-31 |
|---|---|
| Total assets | £359.4k |
| Current assets | £400.1k |
| Cash | £274.2k |
| Debtors | £125.9k |
| Net assets | £352.6k |
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 (24 events)Click to expand
- 2025-08-29📄accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-fullaccounts · AA
- 2024-08-28📄change-account-reference-date-company-current-extendedaccounts · AA01
- 2024-08-22📄accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-fullaccounts · AA
- 2023-08-31📄accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-fullaccounts · AA
- 2022-08-31📄accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-fullaccounts · AA
- 2021-08-31📄accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-fullaccounts · AA
- 2020-10-15📄accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-fullaccounts · AA
- 2019-07-01📄accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-fullaccounts · AA
- 2018-08-29📄accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-fullaccounts · AA
- 2017-08-24📄accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-smallaccounts · AA
- 2016-06-27📄accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-smallaccounts · AA
- 2015-09-02📄annual-return-company-with-made-up-date-full-list-shareholdersannual-return · AR01
- 2015-08-18📄accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-smallaccounts · AA
- 2014-09-02📄annual-return-company-with-made-up-date-full-list-shareholdersannual-return · AR01
- 2014-08-19📄accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-smallaccounts · AA
- 2002-11-26🔒Charge registered #1Lender: Hsbc Bank PLC
- 2002-09-30🏢Company incorporatedAs AC & CE SKELTON LIMITED
- 2002-09-30➕SKELTON, Carol Elizabeth appointedsecretary
- 2002-09-30➕SKELTON, Andrew Charles appointeddirector
- 2002-09-30➕SKELTON, Carol Elizabeth appointeddirector
- 2002-09-30➕TEMPLE SECRETARIES LIMITED appointedcorporate-nominee-secretary
- 2002-09-30➖TEMPLE SECRETARIES LIMITED resignedcorporate-nominee-secretary
- 2002-09-30➕COMPANY DIRECTORS LIMITED appointedcorporate-nominee-director
- 2002-09-30➖COMPANY DIRECTORS LIMITED resignedcorporate-nominee-director
Owner dependency
100/100
Critical — business is the founderThe 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 name in company name: Company name contains director surname "SKELTON" — strong identity link between founder and business.
- +Long-tenure founder: Senior director has been in place 24 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
- +Founder age: Director aged approximately 65 — succession pressure is live.
- +Family involvement: Multiple officers share a surname — likely family business, which concentrates governance.
Succession & seller-readiness
86/100
Likely off-market candidateStrong acquirability signals converging. Worth approaching directly — this is how off-market deals start.
SIGNALS
- primaryFounder aged 63+: Senior director is approximately 65. 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 24 years. Very long tenure is a classic succession signal.
- secondaryStable-but-static management: Company is 24 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
cleanNo red flags detected from available public data. (This is not a clean bill of health — detailed accounts review still recommended.)
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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
Incorporated2002-09-30
Jurisdictionengland-wales
Primary SIC49410 — Freight transport by road
Registered office
Clickham Grange
Wold Newton
Driffield
East Yorkshire
YO25 3HP
Filing status
Accounts
Next due: 2026-12-31
Last made up to: 2025-03-31
Confirmation statement
Next due: 2026-09-15
Last: 2025-09-01
Officers (3 active · 2 resigned)
SKELTON, Carol Elizabeth→
Activesecretary · appointed 2002-09-30
View their other companies + combined net worth →
SKELTON, Andrew Charles→
Activedirector · ~65y · appointed 2002-09-30
View their other companies + combined net worth →
SKELTON, Carol Elizabeth→
Activedirector · ~63y · appointed 2002-09-30
View their other companies + combined net worth →
TEMPLE SECRETARIES LIMITED→
Resignedcorporate-nominee-secretary · appointed 2002-09-30 · resigned 2002-09-30
COMPANY DIRECTORS LIMITED→
Resignedcorporate-nominee-director · appointed 2002-09-30 · resigned 2002-09-30
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
| Type | Properties | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| outstanding | HSBC Hsbc Bank PLC | Debenture | 1 property | 26/11/2002 | — |
Click column headers to sort. Use filters above to narrow by status and lender.
Recent filings (55 total)
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2025-09-02
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2025-08-29
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2024-09-12
change-account-reference-date-company-current-extended
accounts · AA01
2024-08-28
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2024-08-22
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2023-09-01
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2023-08-31
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2022-09-05
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2022-08-31
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2021-09-13
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2021-08-31
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2020-10-15
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2020-09-07
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2019-09-02
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2019-07-01