ALBA PLANNING CONSULTANTS LIMITED

🌳Matureactive
SC157540 · ltd · incorporated 1995-04-20
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 22.3y old — refinance window within 12 months
🔒Estimated value
—
Upgrade to see
Turnover
—
year to Apr 2025
Net worth
£230.3k
book net assets
Opportunity
82/100
Exceptional
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What this business does
Primary activity: Other engineering activities
Sector: Professional, scientific & technical
Investor take
Pursue
Active trading company with a 66-year-old founder — textbook succession opportunity.

Opportunity 82/100 (exceptional), bankability 75/100. Strong seller-intent signal (83/100, director aged 66). 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

2 live charges · 2 lenders · oldest 22.3y

50/100
clean up first

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

  • · Oldest live charge is 22.3 years old — likely at or near maturity.
  • · Two lenders — manageable, but coordination required.
  • · Legal-friction score 25/100 — workable, but lender will want more DD.

Data confidence

Overall: medium (76/100)

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
2 charges (2/2 with lender, 2/2 with type)
90
Directors & officers
5 officers (3 active, 5 linked, 2 with DOB)
78
Ownership & PSC
1 active PSC(s) of 1 total, 1 with control declared
90
Director network
Network not yet resolved
30
Filing history
97 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 £230,349

Key financials

2 years extracted from filed iXBRL accounts
Cash
£44k
Net Worth
£230k
Current Assets
£440k
Current Liabilities
—
£0£88k£176k£264k£352k£440kApr 2024Apr 2025

Hover to see exact values · click legend to toggle series

Financials

Extracted from Companies House accounts · FRS 102
Metric2025-04-302024-04-30
Total assets£230.5k—
Current assets£439.9k—
Cash£44.5k—
Debtors£395.4k—
Net assets£230.3k—
Average employees—200

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
1
filing
  • • 1 confirmation-statement
Last 90 days
1
filing
  • • 1 confirmation-statement
Last 180 days
2
filings
  • • 1 confirmation-statement
  • • 1 accounts
Counts from Companies House filing history.
Corporate timeline (25 events)Click to expand
  1. 2026-01-28
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  2. 2025-01-21
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  3. 2024-01-16
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  4. 2023-01-04
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  5. 2022-11-07
    📍
    change-registered-office-address-company-with-date-old-address-new-address
    address · AD01
  6. 2022-01-24
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  7. 2021-08-17
    📍
    change-registered-office-address-company-with-date-old-address-new-address
    address · AD01
  8. 2021-03-01
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  9. 2020-01-27
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-unaudited-abridged
    accounts · AA
  10. 2019-01-28
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-unaudited-abridged
    accounts · AA
  11. 2018-06-22
    📄
    mortgage-alter-floating-charge-with-number
    mortgage · 466(Scot)
  12. 2018-06-13
    📄
    mortgage-create-with-deed-with-charge-number-charge-creation-date
    mortgage · MR01
  13. 2018-05-31
    🔒
    Charge registered #2
    Lender: Lloyds Bank Commercial Finance Limited
  14. 2018-01-11
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-unaudited-abridged
    accounts · AA
  15. 2017-01-23
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
    accounts · AA
  16. 2016-04-26
    📄
    annual-return-company-with-made-up-date-full-list-shareholders
    annual-return · AR01
  17. 2005-08-31
    ➕
    HOWAT, Fiona Catherine Anne appointed
    director
  18. 2004-02-01
    🔒
    Charge registered #1
    Lender: The Governor and Company of the Bank of Scotland
  19. 1996-05-08
    ➕
    HOWAT, Fiona Catherine Anne appointed
    secretary
  20. 1996-05-08
    ➖
    HOWAT, Helen Hastings Houston resigned
    secretary
  21. 1995-04-20
    🏢
    Company incorporated
    As ALBA PLANNING CONSULTANTS LIMITED
  22. 1995-04-20
    ➕
    HOWAT, Roy Wilson appointed
    director
  23. 1995-04-20
    ➕
    HOWAT, Helen Hastings Houston appointed
    secretary
  24. 1995-04-20
    ➕
    OSWALDS OF EDINBURGH LIMITED appointed
    corporate-secretary
  25. 1995-04-20
    ➖
    OSWALDS OF EDINBURGH LIMITED resigned
    corporate-secretary

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 31 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
  • +Founder age: Director aged approximately 66 — succession pressure is live.
  • +Family involvement: Multiple officers share a surname — likely family business, which concentrates governance.

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 63+: Senior director is approximately 66. Approaching typical UK retirement age — succession thinking likely.
  • secondaryTwo-director governance: Small-team governance. Succession depth is thin but not absent.
  • primary20+ year tenure: Director in role 31 years. Very long tenure is a classic succession signal.
  • secondaryStable-but-static management: Company is 31 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 · dominant holder ≥75%
NameSharesVoting rightsNature of controlNotified
Mr Roy Wilson Howat
Individual · British · DOB 03/1960 · age 66
75–100%
—75-100% shares21/04/2016

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.

See pricing →

Company details

Statusactive
Typeltd
Incorporated1995-04-20
Jurisdictionscotland
Primary SIC71129 — Other engineering activities

Registered office

21 Sunningdale Avenue
Ayr
KA7 4RQ
United Kingdom

Filing status

Accounts
Next due: 2027-01-31
Last made up to: 2025-04-30
Confirmation statement
Next due: 2027-05-04
Last: 2026-04-20

Officers (3 active · 2 resigned)

HOWAT, Fiona Catherine Anne→
secretary · appointed 1996-05-08
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
HOWAT, Fiona Catherine Anne→
director · ~54y · appointed 2005-08-31
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
HOWAT, Roy Wilson→
director · ~66y · appointed 1995-04-20
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
HOWAT, Helen Hastings Houston→
secretary · appointed 1995-04-20 · resigned 1996-05-08
Resigned
OSWALDS OF EDINBURGH LIMITED→
corporate-secretary · appointed 1995-04-20 · resigned 1995-04-20
Resigned

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

Mortgages & charges

2
Total charges
2
Outstanding
1
Active lenders
Status:Lender:2 of 2 shown
TypeProperties
outstanding
Lloyds Banking Group
Lloyds Bank Commercial Finance Limited
A registered charge—31/05/2018—
outstanding
Lloyds Banking Group
The Governor and Company of the Bank of Scotland
Bond & floating charge1 property01/02/2004—
Click column headers to sort. Use filters above to narrow by status and lender.

Recent filings (97 total)

confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2026-04-28
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2026-01-28
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2025-04-22
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2025-01-21
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2024-04-22
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2024-01-16
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2023-04-20
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2023-01-04
change-registered-office-address-company-with-date-old-address-new-address
address · AD01
2022-11-07
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2022-05-13
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2022-01-24
change-registered-office-address-company-with-date-old-address-new-address
address · AD01
2021-08-17
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2021-05-24
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2021-03-01
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2020-04-20