FCE HYDRAULICS LTD

🌳Matureactive

SC191289 · ltd · incorporated 1998-11-19

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.

Why now

Window steady · low confidence

Stable recent picture — watch for any upcoming trigger event.

Opportunity decay

approaching window · 12-months

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

· Oldest live charge 27.5y 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 May 2025

Net worth

£655.5k

book net assets

Opportunity

83/100

Exceptional

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What this business does

Primary activity: SIC 25990

Sector: Manufacturing

Investor take

Pursue

Asset-holding vehicle with a 68-year-old founder — textbook succession opportunity.

Opportunity 83/100 (exceptional), bankability 85/100. Strong seller-intent signal (63/100, director aged 68). Share purchase looks the cleaner deal structure. Most likely exit: share sale to pe / searcher (65/100).

🏦

Refinance opportunity

1 live charge · oldest 27.5y

85/100

ready

Refinance conversation should be productive — structure clean and timing right.

· Oldest live charge is 27.5 years old — likely at or near maturity.
· Single lender — cleanest path to refinance.
· Legal-friction score 15/100 — clean.

Data confidence

Overall: high (81/100)

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

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 (5 active, 8 linked, 6 with DOB)

Ownership & PSC

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

Director network

7 connected companies via shared directors

Filing history

75 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 £655,458

Cash YoY

+379%

Year on year

Key financials

2 years extracted from filed iXBRL accounts

Cash

£798k

↑ 379% YoY

Net Worth

£655k

↑ 10% YoY

Current Assets

£1.4m

↑ 38% YoY

Current Liabilities

—

Hover to see exact values · click legend to toggle series

Financials

Extracted from Companies House accounts · accounting standard unknown

Metric	2025-05-31	2024-05-31
Total assets	£736.4k	£690.1k
Current assets	£1.42M	£1.03M
Cash	£797.7k	£166.4k
Debtors	£601.8k	£839.7k
Net assets	£655.5k	£595.5k

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

🔒Filing-note intelligence

2 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

filings

Last 90 days

filings

Last 180 days

filings

• 1 confirmation-statement
• 1 accounts

Counts from Companies House filing history.

Corporate timeline (30 events)Click to expand

2025-12-24
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2025-01-09
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2023-12-12
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2023-11-28
📄
appoint-person-director-company-with-name-date
officers · AP01
2023-11-28
📄
appoint-person-director-company-with-name-date
officers · AP01
2023-06-01
➕
HAMILTON, Mark appointed
director
2023-06-01
➕
ROLLO, Anddrew appointed
director
2022-12-13
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2021-12-10
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2021-10-05
📄
appoint-person-director-company-with-name-date
officers · AP01
2021-04-01
➕
RINTOUL, Nicholas appointed
director
2021-01-19
📄
change-to-a-person-with-significant-control
persons-with-significant-control · PSC05
2021-01-19
📄
change-person-director-company-with-change-date
officers · CH01
2021-01-19
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2019-12-05
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2019-07-09
📄
appoint-person-director-company-with-name-date
officers · AP01
2019-05-01
➕
RINTOUL, Robert appointed
director
2018-11-10
📄
mortgage-satisfy-charge-full
mortgage · MR04
2018-11-10
🔓
Charge satisfied #1
2018-11-09
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2018-11-08
📄
termination-secretary-company-with-name-termination-date
officers · TM02
2018-11-02
➖
RINTOUL, James resigned
secretary
1998-12-30
🔒
Charge registered #1
Lender: The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC
1998-11-19
🏢
Company incorporated
As FCE HYDRAULICS LTD
1998-11-19
➕
RINTOUL, John appointed
director
1998-11-19
➕
REID, Brian appointed
nominee-secretary
1998-11-19
➖
REID, Brian resigned
nominee-secretary
1998-11-19
➕
RINTOUL, James appointed
secretary
1998-11-19
➕
MABBOTT, Stephen appointed
nominee-director
1998-11-19
➖
MABBOTT, Stephen resigned
nominee-director

Owner dependency

73/100

High — earn-out structure required

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

FACTORS

-5 active directors: Broader management team in place — suggests transferable governance.
+Long-tenure founder: Senior director has been in place 28 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
+Founder age: Director aged approximately 68 — succession pressure is live.
+Family involvement: Multiple officers share a surname — likely family business, which concentrates governance.

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 63+: Senior director is approximately 68. Approaching typical UK retirement age — succession thinking likely.
primary20+ year tenure: Director in role 28 years. Very long tenure is a classic succession signal.
secondaryStable-but-static management: Company is 28 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.)

Group structure

Fce Group Ltd is the ultimate parent — holding 75%+ shares. This company sits inside their group.

🏛️

Fce Group Ltd

Corporate parent · holds 75-100% shares · board control

ultimate parent

⬇

FCE HYDRAULICS LTD

This company · SC191289

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

Shareholders & ownership

1 active beneficial owner · dominant holder ≥75%

Name	Shares	Voting rights	Nature of control	Notified
Fce Group Ltd Corporate entity	75–100%	75–100%	board control75-100% shares · 75-100% voting · board control	06/04/2016

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 →

Similar companies

Active · Manufacturing · KY postcode area

Company	Est. value	Turnover	Net worth	Staff	Age	Opp	Director
FIFE FABRICATIONS LIMITED→ SC051054 · est 1972	£4.34M £3.37M–£5.30M	—	—	9700	53y	81	66y
FTV PROCLAD (U.K.) LIMITED→ SC271316 · est 2004	—	—	—	42	21y	85	66y
PR2 ENGINEERING LIMITED→ SC278634 · est 2005 · no financials extracted	—	—	—	—	21y	83	60y
STONE MARINE SERVICES LIMITED→ SC202418 · est 1999	—	—	£2.02M	—	26y	83	75y
TEN 47 LIMITED→ SC216186 · est 2001	—	—	£4.37M	—	25y	83	61y
AXYZ ENGINEERING LIMITED→ SC222810 · est 2001	—	—	£552.4k	—	24y	82	65y
BELLISTON QUARRY COMPANY LTD. (THE)→ SC022558 · est 1943 · no financials extracted	—	—	—	—	82y	82	94y
CONTRACT SOLUTIONS (SCOTLAND) LIMITED→ SC305000 · est 2006 · no financials extracted	—	—	—	—	19y	82	75y
COOLFORCE LIMITED→ SC204027 · est 2000	—	—	—	0	26y	82	61y
DAVID L DOUGLAS LIMITED→ SC385357 · est 2010	—	—	—	1700	15y	82	70y
EDEN ILLUMINATION LTD→ SC365181 · est 2009	—	—	£38.6k	—	16y	82	69y
G.S. BROWN (PRECISION ENGINEERS) LIMITED→ SC137707 · est 1992	—	—	—	2000	34y	82	73y

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

Incorporated1998-11-19

Jurisdictionscotland

Primary SIC25990 — SIC 25990

Registered office

Taylor Stiles Building

Methilhaven Road

Aberhill, Leven

Fife

KY8 3LA

Filing status

Accounts

Next due: 2027-02-28

Last made up to: 2025-05-31

Confirmation statement

Next due: 2027-01-16

Last: 2026-01-02