O'BRIEN CONSTRUCTION LIMITED

🌳Matureactive

SC050820 · ltd · incorporated 1972-06-20

Investment thesis

Property vehicle with leveraged stack — refinance / partial-release angle.

Why interesting: Asset-backed; value largely in underlying property; lender engagement likely possible.

Why risky: Multiple lenders to manage; inter-creditor friction and partial-release cost possible.

🔒Estimated value

—

Upgrade to see

Turnover

—

year to Dec 2024

Net worth

£3.95M

book net assets

Opportunity

82/100

Exceptional

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What this business does

Primary activity: Construction of commercial buildings

Sector: Construction

Investor take

Pursue

Active trading company with a 87-year-old founder — textbook succession opportunity.

Opportunity 82/100 (exceptional), bankability 67/100. Strong seller-intent signal (63/100, director aged 87). Share purchase looks the cleaner deal structure. Biggest value-creation lever: Consolidate lender relationships. 3 distinct lenders creates friction — refinance into single-lender structure for cleaner diligence. Most likely exit: share sale to pe / searcher (65/100).

🏦

Refinance opportunity

4 live charges · 3 lenders · oldest 48.0y

35/100

too messy

Refinance path is blocked by complexity. Rethink structure or expect bespoke, expensive terms.

· Oldest live charge is 48.0 years old — likely at or near maturity.
· 3 lenders named — inter-creditor friction likely.
· Legal-friction score 35/100 — workable, but lender will want more DD.

Data confidence

Overall: medium (78/100)

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

Lenders & charges

4 charges (4/4 with lender, 4/4 with type)

Directors & officers

14 officers (8 active, 14 linked, 12 with DOB)

Ownership & PSC

1 active PSC(s) of 2 total, 2 with control declared

Director network

Network not yet resolved

Filing history

115 filings on record

Gazette notices

No matching gazette notices (standard for active companies)

Opportunity Score

82/100Exceptional

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.

Signals from accounts

Derived from iXBRL accounts · accounting standard not declared

Positive net assets

Net assets £3,951,352

Cash YoY

+9%

Year on year

Key financials

2 years extracted from filed iXBRL accounts

Cash

£2.3m

↑ 9.0% YoY

Net Worth

£4.0m

↑ 8.8% YoY

Current Assets

£4.0m

↑ 15% YoY

Current Liabilities

—

Hover to see exact values · click legend to toggle series

Financials

Extracted from Companies House accounts · accounting standard unknown

Metric	2024-12-31	2023-12-31
Total assets	£4.20M	£3.79M
Current assets	£3.98M	£3.47M
Cash	£2.30M	£2.11M
Debtors	£1.27M	£848.0k
Net assets	£3.95M	£3.63M

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

filings

Last 90 days

filings

Last 180 days

filings

• 2 officers
• 1 confirmation-statement

Counts from Companies House filing history.

Corporate timeline (37 events)Click to expand

2026-01-15
📄
change-person-director-company-with-change-date
officers · CH01
2026-01-15
📄
change-person-director-company-with-change-date
officers · CH01
2025-09-02
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2024-09-10
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-small
accounts · AA
2023-09-26
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-small
accounts · AA
2023-03-06
📄
change-person-director-company-with-change-date
officers · CH01
2023-03-03
📄
change-person-director-company-with-change-date
officers · CH01
2023-01-24
📄
termination-director-company-with-name-termination-date
officers · TM01
2023-01-24
📄
cessation-of-a-person-with-significant-control
persons-with-significant-control · PSC07
2022-12-03
➖
O'BRIEN, David Anderson resigned
director
2022-09-28
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-small
accounts · AA
2021-09-21
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-small
accounts · AA
2020-10-01
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-small
accounts · AA
2019-09-04
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-small
accounts · AA
2018-09-24
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-small
accounts · AA
2017-09-26
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-small
accounts · AA
2011-12-01
➖
ROBB, John resigned
director
2004-05-14
➕
MACKAY, Cathel John appointed
director
2004-05-14
➕
O'BRIEN, Elizabeth Catherine appointed
director
2004-05-14
➕
O'BRIEN, Mark Robert appointed
director
2004-05-14
➕
ROBB, John appointed
director
2002-06-29
➖
GEDDES, Alistair Cormack Bain resigned
director
2000-12-31
➕
O'BRIEN, David appointed
director
2000-12-31
➕
O'BRIEN, John appointed
director
2000-04-07
➕
CHAMBERS, Donald appointed
director
2000-04-07
➕
MACKAY, Lynda Mackintosh appointed
director
1999-12-31
➕
MACKAY, Lynda Mackintosh appointed
secretary
1999-12-31
➖
GEDDES, Alistair Cormack Bain resigned
secretary
1999-10-31
➖
FIRTH, Leslie Rae resigned
director
1998-11-13
➖
FIRTH, Eoin James resigned
director
1991-03-28
🔓
Charge satisfied #6
1991-03-28
🔓
Charge satisfied #2
1986-05-23
🔒
Charge registered #6
Lender: The Highlands and Islands Development Board
1981-07-20
🔒
Charge registered #5
Lender: The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC
1980-02-25
🔒
Charge registered #2
Lender: Highlands and Islands Development Board
1978-05-15
🔒
Charge registered #1
Lender: The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC
1972-06-20
🏢
Company incorporated
As O'BRIEN CONSTRUCTION LIMITED

Owner dependency

88/100

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

-7 active directors: Broader management team in place — suggests transferable governance.
+Founder name in company name: Company name contains director surname "O'BRIEN" — strong identity link between founder and business.
+Long-tenure founder: Senior director has been in place 26 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
+Founder age: Director aged approximately 87 — succession pressure is live.
+Family involvement: Multiple officers share a surname — likely family business, which concentrates governance.

Succession & seller-readiness

90/100

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 87 years old. Natural succession window is now.
primary20+ year tenure: Director in role 26 years. Very long tenure is a classic succession signal.
secondaryStable-but-static management: Company is 54 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

1 active beneficial owner

Name	Shares	Voting rights	Nature of control	Notified
Mrs Elizabeth Catherine O'Brien Individual · British · DOB 11/1939 · age 87	25–50%	—	25-50% shares	06/04/2016

1 historic (ceased) PSC

Mr David Anderson O'Brienceased 03/12/2022· 25-50% shares

From Companies House Persons with Significant Control filings. Share ranges are banded per the public PSC regime.

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HEARTLAND HOME SERVICES LIMITED→ SC130330 · est 1991	—	—	£27.5k	—	35y	82	75y
HUGH SIMPSON (CONTRACTORS) LIMITED→ SC067751 · est 1979	—	—	£11.00M	—	47y	82	66y
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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.

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Company details

Statusactive

Typeltd

Incorporated1972-06-20

Jurisdictionscotland

Primary SIC41201 — Construction of commercial buildings

Registered office

Park Lane

Thurso

Caithness

KW14 8JZ

Filing status

Accounts

Next due: 2026-09-30

Last made up to: 2024-12-31

Confirmation statement

Next due: 2027-01-14

Last: 2025-12-31