MACDUFF DIESELS LTD.

🌳Matureactive

SC177616 · ltd · incorporated 1997-07-31

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 23.9y old — refinance window within 12 months

🔒Estimated value

—

Upgrade to see

Turnover

—

year to Sept 2025

Net worth

£909.3k

book net assets

Opportunity

83/100

Exceptional

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What this business does

Primary activity: SIC 45200

Sector: Wholesale & retail

ALSO REGISTERED FOR

52219SIC 52219

Investor take

Pursue

Active trading company with a 70-year-old founder — textbook succession opportunity.

Opportunity 83/100 (exceptional), bankability 80/100. Strong seller-intent signal (63/100, director aged 70). 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 23.9y

65/100

clean up first

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

· Oldest live charge is 23.9 years old — likely at or near maturity.
· Single lender — cleanest path to refinance.
· Legal-friction score 30/100 — workable, but lender will want more DD.

Data confidence

Overall: high (81/100)

Strong data coverage across all sections. AI outputs should be trusted with minimal caveats.

Company profile

address, 2 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

15 officers (7 active, 15 linked, 11 with DOB)

Ownership & PSC

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

Director network

5 connected companies via shared directors

Filing history

102 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.

Signals from accounts

Derived from iXBRL accounts · accounting standard not declared

Positive net assets

Net assets £909,285

Cash YoY

+20%

Year on year

Key financials

2 years extracted from filed iXBRL accounts

Cash

£289k

↑ 20% YoY

Net Worth

£909k

↑ 1.0% YoY

Current Assets

£985k

~ YoY

Current Liabilities

—

Hover to see exact values · click legend to toggle series

Financials

Extracted from Companies House accounts · accounting standard unknown

Metric	2025-09-30	2024-09-30
Total assets	£914.0k	£910.3k
Current assets	£985.3k	£977.0k
Cash	£289.4k	£240.3k
Debtors	£327.4k	£310.4k
Net assets	£909.3k	£900.1k

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

• 1 confirmation-statement
• 1 accounts

Last 180 days

filings

• 1 confirmation-statement
• 1 accounts

Counts from Companies House filing history.

Corporate timeline (43 events)Click to expand

2026-02-19
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2025-06-27
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2025-03-12
📄
notification-of-a-person-with-significant-control
persons-with-significant-control · PSC02
2025-03-11
📄
cessation-of-a-person-with-significant-control
persons-with-significant-control · PSC07
2024-11-20
📄
appoint-person-director-company-with-name-date
officers · AP01
2024-11-20
📄
appoint-person-director-company-with-name-date
officers · AP01
2024-11-20
📄
appoint-person-director-company-with-name-date
officers · AP01
2024-11-19
📄
memorandum-articles
incorporation · MA
2024-11-19
📄
resolution
resolution · RESOLUTIONS
2024-11-07
➕
MCBAIN, Jamie Alistair appointed
director
2024-11-07
➕
MCCANN, Rory appointed
director
2024-11-07
➕
SHARP, Allan Kenneth appointed
director
2024-08-05
📄
termination-director-company-with-name-termination-date
officers · TM01
2024-06-13
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2024-04-30
📄
termination-director-company-with-name-termination-date
officers · TM01
2024-04-29
➖
BARRACK, William Fred resigned
director
2024-01-16
➖
THAIN, Colin George resigned
director
2023-06-21
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2022-02-09
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2022-01-11
📄
change-person-director-company-with-change-date
officers · CH01
2021-06-29
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2020-04-28
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2019-12-11
➕
LC SECRETARIES LIMITED appointed
corporate-secretary
2019-12-11
➖
LEDINGHAM CHALMERS LLP resigned
corporate-secretary
2019-12-11
📄
termination-secretary-company-with-name-termination-date
officers · TM02
2012-07-05
➖
FARQUHAR, William resigned
director
2006-07-10
➕
BARRACK, William Fred appointed
director
2006-07-10
➖
BLACKHALL, Eric resigned
director
2006-04-01
➕
LEDINGHAM CHALMERS LLP appointed
corporate-secretary
2006-04-01
➖
LEDINGHAM CHALMERS LLP resigned
corporate-secretary
2002-06-06
🔒
Charge registered #1
Lender: Clydesdale Bank Public Limited Company
1998-04-15
➕
MACLEOD, Roderick appointed
director
1998-04-15
➕
RITCHIE, Clifford Lawrence appointed
director
1998-04-15
➕
BLACKHALL, Eric appointed
director
1998-04-15
➕
FARQUHAR, William appointed
director
1998-04-15
➕
THAIN, Colin George appointed
director
1997-08-20
➕
WATT, John appointed
director
1997-08-20
➕
LEDINGHAM CHALMERS LLP appointed
corporate-secretary
1997-07-31
🏢
Company incorporated
As MACDUFF DIESELS LTD.
1997-07-31
➕
REID, Brian appointed
nominee-secretary
1997-07-31
➖
REID, Brian resigned
nominee-secretary
1997-07-31
➕
MABBOTT, Stephen appointed
nominee-director
1997-07-31
➖
MABBOTT, Stephen resigned
nominee-director

Owner dependency

65/100

High — earn-out structure required

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

FACTORS

-6 active directors: Broader management team in place — suggests transferable governance.
+Long-tenure founder: Senior director has been in place 29 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
+Founder age: Director aged approximately 70 — succession pressure is live.

Succession & seller-readiness

80/100

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 70 years old. Natural succession window is now.
primary20+ year tenure: Director in role 29 years. Very long tenure is a classic succession signal.
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.)

Group structure

Macduff Shipyards Limited holds 25-50% — a significant corporate investor but not a controlling parent.

🏛️

Macduff Shipyards Limited

Corporate parent · holds 25-50% shares

significant stake

⬇

MACDUFF DIESELS LTD.

This company · SC177616

Parent relationships inferred from Persons with Significant Control filings. Full subsidiary tree requires reverse-lookup (coming).

Shareholders & ownership

1 active beneficial owner

Name	Shares	Voting rights	Nature of control	Notified
Macduff Shipyards Limited Corporate entity	25–50%	25–50%	25-50% shares · 25-50% voting	03/10/2024

1 historic (ceased) PSC

Mr Colin George Thainceased 03/10/2024· 25-50% shares · 25-50% voting

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

Incorporated1997-07-31

Jurisdictionscotland

Primary SIC45200 — SIC 45200

Registered office

Johnstone House

52-54 Rose Street

Aberdeen

AB10 1HA

Filing status

Accounts

Next due: 2027-06-30

Last made up to: 2025-09-30

Confirmation statement

Next due: 2027-03-26

Last: 2026-03-12