COLIN DIVENS (STEPPS) LIMITED

🌳Matureactive

SC124089 · ltd · incorporated 1990-03-30

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.

Why now

Window steady · low confidence

Steady and tidy — no seller pressure yet. Approach only if an angle opens.

Opportunity decay

approaching window · 12-months

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

· Oldest live charge 35.7y old — refinance window within 12 months

What changed my view

Last 30 days

No material changes in the last 30 days.

Last 90 days

No snapshot from 90 days ago — start tracking from today.

Last 180 days

No snapshot from 180 days ago — start tracking from today.

🔒Estimated value

—

Upgrade to see

Turnover

—

year to Mar 2025

Net worth

£201.1k

book net assets

Opportunity

82/100

Exceptional

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What this business does

Primary activity: Freight transport by road

Sector: Transportation & storage

Investor take

Pursue

Active trading company with a 81-year-old founder — textbook succession opportunity.

Opportunity 82/100 (exceptional), bankability 80/100. Strong seller-intent signal (63/100, director aged 81). 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 35.7y

65/100

clean up first

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

· Oldest live charge is 35.7 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 (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

1 charges (1/1 with lender, 1/1 with type)

Directors & officers

8 officers (6 active, 8 linked, 6 with DOB)

Ownership & PSC

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

Director network

Network not yet resolved

Filing history

85 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 · FRS 105 (micro)

Positive net assets

Net assets £201,081

Key financials

2 years extracted from filed iXBRL accounts

Cash

—

Net Worth

£201k

↑ 101% YoY

Current Assets

£255k

↑ 73% YoY

Current Liabilities

—

Hover to see exact values · click legend to toggle series

Financials

Extracted from Companies House accounts · FRS 105 (micro)

Metric	2025-03-31	2024-03-31
Total assets	£204.9k	£124.5k
Current assets	£255.3k	£147.5k
Net assets	£201.1k	£100.1k

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

filing

• 1 confirmation-statement

Counts from Companies House filing history.

Corporate timeline (26 events)Click to expand

2025-12-08
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2024-10-07
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2023-12-11
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-unaudited-abridged
accounts · AA
2022-10-24
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-unaudited-abridged
accounts · AA
2022-04-05
📄
second-filing-of-confirmation-statement-with-made-up-date
confirmation-statement · RP04CS01
2021-11-29
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2020-10-22
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2019-12-30
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2018-12-12
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2017-12-28
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2017-02-09
📄
appoint-person-director-company-with-name-date
officers · AP01
2017-02-09
📄
appoint-person-director-company-with-name-date
officers · AP01
2017-02-09
📄
appoint-person-director-company-with-name-date
officers · AP01
2017-01-31
➕
DIVENS, Colin appointed
director
2017-01-31
➕
DIVENS, John appointed
director
2017-01-31
➕
DIVENS, Michelle appointed
director
2016-12-29
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
accounts · AA
2016-04-19
📄
annual-return-company-with-made-up-date-full-list-shareholders
annual-return · AR01
1990-10-19
🔒
Charge registered #1
Lender: The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC
1990-03-30
🏢
Company incorporated
As COLIN DIVENS (STEPPS) LIMITED
1990-03-30
➕
DIVENS, Myra appointed
secretary
1990-03-30
➕
DIVENS, Colin appointed
director
1990-03-30
➕
MABBOTT, Lesley appointed
nominee-secretary
1990-03-30
➖
MABBOTT, Lesley resigned
nominee-secretary
1990-03-30
➕
MABBOTT, Stephen appointed
nominee-director
1990-03-30
➖
MABBOTT, Stephen resigned
nominee-director

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

-5 active directors: Broader management team in place — suggests transferable governance.
+Founder name in company name: Company name contains director surname "DIVENS" — strong identity link between founder and business.
+Long-tenure founder: Senior director has been in place 36 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
+Founder age: Director aged approximately 81 — 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 81 years old. Natural succession window is now.
primary20+ year tenure: Director in role 36 years. Very long tenure is a classic succession signal.
secondaryStable-but-static management: Company is 36 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
Mr Colin Divens Individual · British · DOB 02/1945 · age 81	—	—	sig. influencesignificant influence	06/04/2016

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

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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

Incorporated1990-03-30

Jurisdictionscotland

Primary SIC49410 — Freight transport by road

Registered office

43 Cardowan Drive

Stepps

Glasgow

G33 6HQ

Filing status

Accounts

Next due: 2026-12-31

Last made up to: 2025-03-31

Confirmation statement

Next due: 2027-04-13

Last: 2026-03-30