CALIFORNIA MICROWAVE, INC.
🌳Matureactive
FC017952 · oversea-company · incorporated 1993-10-04
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 27.6y old — refinance window within 12 months
🔒Estimated value
—
Upgrade to see
Turnover
—
not disclosed
Net worth
—
book net assets
Opportunity
80/100
Exceptional
Investor take
PursueActive trading company with a 89-year-old founder — textbook succession opportunity.
Opportunity 80/100 (exceptional), bankability 80/100. Strong seller-intent signal (83/100, director aged 89). 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 27.6y
65/100
clean up first
Refinance viable after a tidy-up — address the highlighted items first.
- · Oldest live charge is 27.6 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: low (44/100)Sparse data coverage. Treat AI-generated outputs as preliminary. Manual diligence essential.
Company profile
address, no SIC, incorporation date
80
Financials
No iXBRL financials extracted
0
Lenders & charges
1 charges (1/1 with lender, 1/1 with type)
90
Directors & officers
3 officers (3 active, 3 linked, 2 with DOB)
83
Ownership & PSC
No PSCs filed (unusual — worth investigating)
35
Director network
Network not yet resolved
30
Filing history
6 filings
60
Gazette notices
No matching gazette notices (standard for active companies)
60
Opportunity Score
80/100Exceptional
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
90
Good data coverage for analysis.
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 (11 events)Click to expand
- 2001-12-27📄miscellaneousmiscellaneous · MISC
- 1998-11-25📄legacymortgage · 395
- 1998-11-02🔒Charge registered #1Lender: Union Bank of California N.a(As Agent for the Banks (as Defined))
- 1995-12-22📄accounts-with-accounts-type-fullaccounts · AA
- 1995-02-06📄legacyaccounts · 701b
- 1994-05-16➕SPILLANE, George L appointedsecretary
- 1994-05-16➕LEESON, David B appointeddirector
- 1994-05-16➕OTTO, Philip F appointeddirector
- 1994-05-16📍legacyaddress · BUSADD
- 1994-05-16📄legacyincorporation · 691
- 1993-10-04🏢Company incorporatedAs CALIFORNIA MICROWAVE, INC.
Owner dependency
83/100
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.
- +Long-tenure founder: Senior director has been in place 32 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
- +Founder age: Director aged approximately 89 — succession pressure is live.
Succession & seller-readiness
96/100
Likely off-market candidateStrong acquirability signals converging. Worth approaching directly — this is how off-market deals start.
SIGNALS
- primaryFounder aged 70+: Senior director is approximately 89 years old. Natural succession window is now.
- secondaryTwo-director governance: Small-team governance. Succession depth is thin but not absent.
- primary20+ year tenure: Director in role 32 years. Very long tenure is a classic succession signal.
- secondaryStable-but-static management: Company is 33 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.
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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.
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See pricing →Company details
Statusactive
Typeoversea-company
Incorporated1993-10-04
Jurisdictionunited-kingdom
Primary SIC—
Registered office
Thomas Burwood
Unit 1, Lincoln Park
Cressex Industrial Estate
High Wycombe, Bucks,
HP12 3RD
Filing status
Accounts
Next due: —
Last made up to: 1994-06-30
Confirmation statement
Next due: —
Last: —
Officers (3 active · 0 resigned)
SPILLANE, George L→
Activesecretary · appointed 1994-05-16
View their other companies + combined net worth →
LEESON, David B→
Activedirector · ~89y · appointed 1994-05-16
View their other companies + combined net worth →
OTTO, Philip F→
Activedirector · ~85y · appointed 1994-05-16
View their other companies + combined net worth →
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 | Union Bank of California N.a(As Agent for the Banks (as Defined)) | Stock pledge agreement (created outside the UK over property situated outside the UK) | 1 property | 02/11/1998 | — |
Click column headers to sort. Use filters above to narrow by status and lender.
Recent filings (6 total)
miscellaneous
miscellaneous · MISC
2001-12-27
legacy
mortgage · 395
1998-11-25
accounts-with-accounts-type-full
accounts · AA
1995-12-22
legacy
accounts · 701b
1995-02-06
legacy
address · BUSADD
1994-05-16
legacy
incorporation · 691
1994-05-16