ACE FIXINGS LTD

🌳Matureactive
NI055683 · ltd · incorporated 2005-06-22
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 7.5y old — refinance window within 12 months
🔒Estimated value
—
Upgrade to see
Turnover
—
year to Dec 2024
Net worth
£883.1k
book net assets
Opportunity
82/100
Exceptional
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What this business does
Primary activity: SIC 46730
Sector: Wholesale & retail
Investor take
Pursue
Active trading company with a 77-year-old founder — textbook succession opportunity.

Opportunity 82/100 (exceptional), bankability 80/100. Strong seller-intent signal (83/100, director aged 77). Share purchase looks the cleaner deal structure. Most likely exit: share sale to pe / searcher (65/100).

🏦

Refinance opportunity

1 live charge · oldest 7.5y

85/100
ready

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

  • · Oldest live charge is 7.5 years old — likely at or near maturity.
  • · Single lender — cleanest path to refinance.
  • · Legal-friction score 15/100 — clean.

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, 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
5 officers (3 active, 5 linked, 2 with DOB)
78
Ownership & PSC
2 active PSC(s) of 2 total, 2 with control declared
90
Director network
5 connected companies via shared directors
60
Filing history
57 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 · FRS 102
Positive net assets
Net assets £883,054
Net assets shrinking
Down £78,423 YoY

Key financials

2 years extracted from filed iXBRL accounts
Cash
—
Net Worth
£883k
↓ 8.2% YoY
Current Assets
£2.1m
↑ 3.2% YoY
Current Liabilities
—
£0£411k£821k£1.2m£1.6m£2.1mDec 2023Dec 2024

Hover to see exact values · click legend to toggle series

Financials

Extracted from Companies House accounts · FRS 102
Metric2024-12-312023-12-31
Total assets£822.7k£938.5k
Current assets£2.05M£1.99M
Net assets£883.1k£961.5k

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

🔒Filing-note intelligence

3 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
0
filings
Counts from Companies House filing history.
Corporate timeline (25 events)Click to expand
  1. 2025-09-30
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  2. 2024-09-30
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  3. 2023-10-09
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  4. 2022-09-30
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  5. 2021-11-03
    📄
    capital-name-of-class-of-shares
    capital · SH08
  6. 2021-11-03
    📄
    resolution
    resolution · RESOLUTIONS
  7. 2021-11-03
    📄
    memorandum-articles
    incorporation · MA
  8. 2021-07-19
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  9. 2021-05-17
    📄
    change-to-a-person-with-significant-control
    persons-with-significant-control · PSC04
  10. 2021-05-17
    📄
    change-to-a-person-with-significant-control
    persons-with-significant-control · PSC04
  11. 2020-10-05
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  12. 2020-02-03
    📄
    change-account-reference-date-company-previous-extended
    accounts · AA01
  13. 2019-04-25
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  14. 2018-11-29
    📄
    mortgage-create-with-deed-with-charge-number-charge-creation-date
    mortgage · MR01
  15. 2018-11-28
    🔒
    Charge registered #1
    Lender: Northern Bank Limited
  16. 2018-04-27
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  17. 2017-04-04
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
    accounts · AA
  18. 2005-06-22
    🏢
    Company incorporated
    As ACE FIXINGS LTD
  19. 2005-06-22
    ➕
    MCGILLIAN, Deirdre appointed
    secretary
  20. 2005-06-22
    ➕
    MCGILLIAN, Austin appointed
    director
  21. 2005-06-22
    ➕
    MCGILLIAN, Deirdre appointed
    director
  22. 2005-06-22
    ➕
    C.S. SECRETARIAL SERVICES LTD appointed
    corporate-secretary
  23. 2005-06-22
    ➖
    C.S. SECRETARIAL SERVICES LTD resigned
    corporate-secretary
  24. 2005-06-22
    ➕
    CS DIRECTOR SERVICES LIMITED appointed
    corporate-director
  25. 2005-06-22
    ➖
    CS DIRECTOR SERVICES LIMITED resigned
    corporate-director

Owner dependency

91/100
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 21 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
  • +Founder age: Director aged approximately 77 — succession pressure is live.
  • +Family involvement: Multiple officers share a surname — likely family business, which concentrates governance.

Succession & seller-readiness

96/100
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 77 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 21 years. Very long tenure is a classic succession signal.
  • secondaryStable-but-static management: Company is 21 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

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

Shareholders & ownership

2 active beneficial owners
NameSharesVoting rightsNature of controlNotified
Mr Austin Mcgillian
Individual · British · DOB 09/1949 · age 77
25–50%
—25-50% shares23/06/2016
Mrs Deirdre Mcgillian
Individual · British · DOB 09/1953 · age 73
25–50%
—25-50% shares23/06/2016

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
Incorporated2005-06-22
Jurisdictionnorthern-ireland
Primary SIC46730 — SIC 46730

Registered office

Woodside Industrial Est
Woodside Road
Ballymena
BT42 4HX

Filing status

Accounts
Next due: 2026-09-30
Last made up to: 2024-12-31
Confirmation statement
Next due: 2026-07-06
Last: 2025-06-22

Officers (3 active · 2 resigned)

MCGILLIAN, Deirdre→
secretary · appointed 2005-06-22
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
MCGILLIAN, Austin→
director · ~77y · appointed 2005-06-22
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
MCGILLIAN, Deirdre→
director · ~73y · appointed 2005-06-22
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
C.S. SECRETARIAL SERVICES LTD→
corporate-secretary · appointed 2005-06-22 · resigned 2005-06-22
Resigned
CS DIRECTOR SERVICES LIMITED→
corporate-director · appointed 2005-06-22 · resigned 2005-06-22
Resigned

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
TypeProperties
outstanding
Northern Bank
Northern Bank Limited
A registered charge—28/11/2018—
Click column headers to sort. Use filters above to narrow by status and lender.

Recent filings (57 total)

accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2025-09-30
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2025-06-27
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2024-09-30
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2024-06-24
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2023-10-09
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2023-06-23
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2022-09-30
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2022-06-29
capital-name-of-class-of-shares
capital · SH08
2021-11-03
resolution
resolution · RESOLUTIONS
2021-11-03
memorandum-articles
incorporation · MA
2021-11-03
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2021-07-19
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2021-06-23
change-to-a-person-with-significant-control
persons-with-significant-control · PSC04
2021-05-17
change-to-a-person-with-significant-control
persons-with-significant-control · PSC04
2021-05-17