FERN ENTERPRISES LIMITED

🌳Matureactive
NI031999 · ltd · incorporated 1997-02-26
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
—
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Turnover
—
year to Mar 2025
Net worth
£1.41M
book net assets
Opportunity
80/100
Exceptional
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What this business does
Primary activity: SIC 47250
Sector: Wholesale & retail
ALSO REGISTERED FOR
  • 47260SIC 47260
Investor take
Pursue
Asset-holding vehicle with a 84-year-old founder — textbook succession opportunity.

Opportunity 80/100 (exceptional), bankability 75/100. Strong seller-intent signal (83/100, director aged 84). Share purchase looks the cleaner deal structure. Biggest value-creation lever: Cash flow review and working-capital discipline. Cash down -45% YoY — forensic review of receivables, stock turns, and creditor days. Most likely exit: share sale to pe / searcher (65/100).

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, 2 SIC codes, incorporation date
100
Financials
2 years of iXBRL accounts extracted (YoY deltas available) + narrative notes parsed
75
Lenders & charges
Confirmed no charges registered
85
Directors & officers
4 officers (3 active, 4 linked, 3 with DOB)
85
Ownership & PSC
1 active PSC(s) of 2 total, 2 with control declared
90
Director network
2 connected companies via shared directors
51
Filing history
75 filings on record
85
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.

Signals from accounts

Derived from iXBRL accounts · accounting standard not declared
Positive net assets
Net assets £1,410,402
Cash draining
Cash down 45% YoY
Cash YoY
-45%
Year on year

Key financials

2 years extracted from filed iXBRL accounts
Cash
£566k
↓ 45% YoY
Net Worth
£1.4m
↑ 7.6% YoY
Current Assets
£1.4m
↑ 1.6% YoY
Current Liabilities
—
£0£282k£564k£846k£1.1m£1.4mMar 2024Mar 2025

Hover to see exact values · click legend to toggle series

Financials

Extracted from Companies House accounts · accounting standard unknown
Metric2025-03-312024-03-31
Total assets£1.48M£1.38M
Current assets£1.37M£1.35M
Cash£565.6k£1.03M
Net assets£1.41M£1.31M

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

🔒Filing-note intelligence

2 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
0
filings
Last 90 days
0
filings
Last 180 days
1
filing
  • • 1 confirmation-statement
Counts from Companies House filing history.
Corporate timeline (21 events)Click to expand
  1. 2025-11-25
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  2. 2025-02-04
    📄
    cessation-of-a-person-with-significant-control
    persons-with-significant-control · PSC07
  3. 2024-12-17
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  4. 2024-10-22
    📄
    appoint-person-director-company-with-name-date
    officers · AP01
  5. 2024-10-17
    📄
    termination-director-company-with-name-termination-date
    officers · TM01
  6. 2024-09-24
    ➕
    BIRT, Jane appointed
    director
  7. 2024-04-20
    ➖
    MCALLISTER, Gerard Augustine resigned
    director
  8. 2023-12-21
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  9. 2022-12-20
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  10. 2021-12-17
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  11. 2021-10-28
    📍
    change-registered-office-address-company-with-date-old-address-new-address
    address · AD01
  12. 2021-10-28
    📄
    change-to-a-person-with-significant-control
    persons-with-significant-control · PSC04
  13. 2021-10-28
    📄
    change-to-a-person-with-significant-control
    persons-with-significant-control · PSC04
  14. 2021-01-21
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  15. 2019-11-21
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  16. 2018-12-19
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  17. 2017-12-22
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  18. 1997-02-26
    🏢
    Company incorporated
    As FERN ENTERPRISES LIMITED
  19. 1997-02-26
    ➕
    MCALLISTER, Maureen Josephine appointed
    secretary
  20. 1997-02-26
    ➕
    MCALLISTER, Maureen Josephine appointed
    director
  21. 1997-02-26
    ➕
    MCALLISTER, Gerard Augustine appointed
    director

Owner dependency

83/100
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 29 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
  • +Founder age: Director aged approximately 84 — succession pressure is live.

Succession & seller-readiness

86/100
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 84 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 29 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

clean
No red flags detected from available public data. (This is not a clean bill of health — detailed accounts review still recommended.)

Shareholders & ownership

1 active beneficial owner
NameSharesVoting rightsNature of controlNotified
Mrs Maureen Josephine Mcallister
Individual · Irish · DOB 03/1942 · age 84
25–50%
25–50%25-50% shares · 25-50% voting01/07/2016
1 historic (ceased) PSC
  • Mr Gerard Augustine Mcallisterceased 20/04/2024· 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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——300028y8769y
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
Incorporated1997-02-26
Jurisdictionnorthern-ireland
Primary SIC47250 — SIC 47250

Registered office

22 Broad Street
Magherafelt
Co Londonderry
BT45 6EA
Northern Ireland

Filing status

Accounts
Next due: 2026-12-31
Last made up to: 2025-03-31
Confirmation statement
Next due: 2027-02-10
Last: 2026-01-27

Officers (3 active · 1 resigned)

MCALLISTER, Maureen Josephine→
secretary · appointed 1997-02-26
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
BIRT, Jane→
director · ~51y · appointed 2024-09-24
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
MCALLISTER, Maureen Josephine→
director · ~84y · appointed 1997-02-26
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
MCALLISTER, Gerard Augustine→
director · ~88y · appointed 1997-02-26 · resigned 2024-04-20
Resigned

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

Recent filings (75 total)

confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2026-02-18
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2025-11-25
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2025-02-06
cessation-of-a-person-with-significant-control
persons-with-significant-control · PSC07
2025-02-04
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2024-12-17
appoint-person-director-company-with-name-date
officers · AP01
2024-10-22
termination-director-company-with-name-termination-date
officers · TM01
2024-10-17
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2024-02-07
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2023-12-21
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2023-02-13
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2022-12-20
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2022-02-21
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2021-12-17
change-registered-office-address-company-with-date-old-address-new-address
address · AD01
2021-10-28
change-to-a-person-with-significant-control
persons-with-significant-control · PSC04
2021-10-28