HALSTON ENGINEERING LTD

🌳Matureactive

SC066605 · ltd · incorporated 1978-12-12

Investment thesis

Well-run mature business — low negotiation leverage; premium likely.

Why interesting: Textbook target; clean filings, stable trading.

Why risky: No pressure on seller; any deal likely at full price.

Opportunity decay

approaching window · 12-months

Approaching a transaction window — refinance or sale event plausible in the next 12 months.

· Oldest live charge 28.6y old — refinance window within 12 months

🔒Estimated value

—

Upgrade to see

Turnover

—

year to Nov 2024

Net worth

—

book net assets

Opportunity

83/100

Exceptional

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What this business does

Primary activity: SIC 25990

Sector: Manufacturing

Investor take

Pursue

Active trading company with a 61-year-old founder — textbook succession opportunity.

Opportunity 83/100 (exceptional), bankability 80/100. Strong seller-intent signal (70/100, director aged 61). Share purchase looks the cleaner deal structure. Biggest value-creation lever: Discharge stale live charges. 2 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

2 live charges · oldest 28.6y

65/100

clean up first

Refinance viable after a tidy-up — address the highlighted items first.

· Oldest live charge is 28.6 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: medium (77/100)

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

2 charges (2/2 with lender, 2/2 with type)

Directors & officers

6 officers (3 active, 6 linked, 4 with DOB)

Ownership & PSC

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

Director network

Network not yet resolved

Filing history

98 filings on record

Gazette notices

No matching gazette notices (standard for active companies)

Opportunity Score

83/100Exceptional

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.

Key financials

2 years extracted from filed iXBRL accounts

Cash

—

Net Worth

—

Current Assets

—

Current Liabilities

—

Hover to see exact values · click legend to toggle series

Financials

Extracted from Companies House accounts · accounting standard unknown

Metric	2024-11-30	2023-11-30
Average employees	600	700

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

Recent activity

Last 30 days

filings

Last 90 days

filings

Last 180 days

filing

• 1 confirmation-statement

Counts from Companies House filing history.

Corporate timeline (24 events)Click to expand

2025-08-25
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2024-08-22
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2023-08-18
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2022-08-18
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2021-08-19
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2020-08-26
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2019-08-26
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2018-08-23
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2017-09-14
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2016-09-02
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2015-12-11
📄
annual-return-company-with-made-up-date-full-list-shareholders
annual-return · AR01
2015-08-12
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2014-12-08
📄
annual-return-company-with-made-up-date-full-list-shareholders
annual-return · AR01
2014-08-29
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2013-11-25
📄
annual-return-company-with-made-up-date-full-list-shareholders
annual-return · AR01
2003-11-05
➕
FOWLDS, Gavin James appointed
secretary
2003-11-05
➕
MORROW, Calvin Forbes appointed
director
2003-11-05
➖
WATERSTON, Alexander William resigned
secretary
2003-11-05
➖
WATERSTON, Alexander William resigned
director
2000-09-11
➖
HALDANE, John Jack resigned
director
1997-10-23
🔒
Charge registered #2
Lender: The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC
1997-10-13
🔒
Charge registered #1
Lender: The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC
1991-03-16
➕
FOWLDS, Gavin James appointed
director
1978-12-12
🏢
Company incorporated
As HALSTON ENGINEERING LTD

Owner dependency

76/100

High — earn-out structure required

Material founder dependency. Consider a 2-3 year earn-out and build in a handover plan before completion.

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 35 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
+Senior director age: Director aged approximately 61 — approaching natural succession window.

Succession & seller-readiness

76/100

Likely off-market candidate

Strong acquirability signals converging. Worth approaching directly — this is how off-market deals start.

SIGNALS

secondaryFounder aged 58+: Senior director is approximately 61. Early succession window.
secondaryTwo-director governance: Small-team governance. Succession depth is thin but not absent.
primary20+ year tenure: Director in role 35 years. Very long tenure is a classic succession signal.
secondaryStable-but-static management: Company is 47 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

Name	Shares	Voting rights	Nature of control	Notified
Mr Gavin James Fowlds Individual · British · DOB 12/1965 · age 61	50–75%	—	50-75% shares	06/04/2016
Mr Calvin Forbes Morrow Individual · British · DOB 01/1976 · age 50	25–50%	—	25-50% shares	06/04/2016

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

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HALSPAN LIMITED→ SC194458 · est 1999	£6.37M £4.95M–£7.78M	—	—	—	27y	83	77y
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SPRING ENGINEERING SERVICES LIMITED→ SC220378 · est 2001	£1.49M £1.16M–£1.83M	—	—	3800	24y	87	74y
WINDOW SUPPLY COMPANY LTD→ SC615256 · est 2018	£699.9k £544.4k–£855.4k	—	—	182	7y	84	72y
EUROSTAMPA UK LTD→ SC024552 · est 1946	£218.8k £170.2k–£267.5k	—	—	200	79y	85	83y
ARRAYJET LIMITED→ SC209936 · est 2000 · no financials extracted	—	—	—	—	25y	83	73y
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CANMORE PIPE BAGS LIMITED→ SC362533 · est 2009	—	—	£53.5k	—	16y	83	58y
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CLOCKHOUSE FURNITURE LIMITED→ SC281686 · est 2005	—	—	£778.1k	—	21y	83	75y
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Peers ranked by estimated value, then turnover, then opportunity score.See all →

🔒Tailored diligence questions

6 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

Incorporated1978-12-12

Jurisdictionscotland

Primary SIC25990 — SIC 25990

Registered office

Unit 14

Mayfield Industrial Estate

Dalkeith

Midlothian

EH22 4AD

Filing status

Accounts

Next due: 2026-08-31

Last made up to: 2024-11-30

Confirmation statement

Next due: 2026-11-28

Last: 2025-11-14

Officers (3 active · 3 resigned)

FOWLDS, Gavin James→

secretary · appointed 2003-11-05

View their other companies + combined net worth →

Active

FOWLDS, Gavin James→

director · ~61y · appointed 1991-03-16

View their other companies + combined net worth →

Active

MORROW, Calvin Forbes→

director · ~50y · appointed 2003-11-05

View their other companies + combined net worth →

Active

WATERSTON, Alexander William→

secretary · resigned 2003-11-05

Resigned

HALDANE, John Jack→

director · ~91y · resigned 2000-09-11

Resigned

WATERSTON, Alexander William→

director · ~90y · resigned 2003-11-05

Resigned

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

Mortgages & charges

Total charges

Outstanding

Active lenders

Status:Lender:2 of 2 shown

			Type	Properties
	outstanding	Lloyds Banking Group The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC	Standard security	1 property	23/10/1997	—
	outstanding	Lloyds Banking Group The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC	Bond & floating charge	1 property	13/10/1997	—

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