DR PLANT HIRE RATHO LIMITED

🌳Matureactive

SC246552 · ltd · incorporated 2003-03-26

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 18.9y old — refinance window within 12 months

🔒Estimated value

—

Upgrade to see

Turnover

—

year to Mar 2025

Net worth

—

book net assets

Opportunity

82/100

Exceptional

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What this business does

Primary activity: Renting and leasing of construction and civil engineering machinery and equipment

Sector: Administrative & support services

Investor take

Pursue

Active trading company with a 76-year-old founder — textbook succession opportunity.

Opportunity 82/100 (exceptional), bankability 80/100. Strong seller-intent signal (63/100, director aged 76). 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 18.9y

65/100

clean up first

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

· Oldest live charge is 18.9 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

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

Directors & officers

5 officers (4 active, 5 linked, 3 with DOB)

Ownership & PSC

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

Director network

Network not yet resolved

Filing history

57 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.

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 · FRS 102

Metric	2025-03-31	2024-03-31
Average employees	6	500

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

filing

• 1 confirmation-statement

Last 90 days

filing

• 1 confirmation-statement

Last 180 days

filings

• 1 confirmation-statement
• 1 accounts

Counts from Companies House filing history.

Corporate timeline (23 events)Click to expand

2025-12-18
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2024-12-19
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2023-12-15
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2022-12-22
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2022-03-31
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2020-12-22
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2019-12-18
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2018-12-17
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2017-12-20
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2016-12-22
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
accounts · AA
2016-04-14
📄
annual-return-company-with-made-up-date-full-list-shareholders
annual-return · AR01
2015-12-23
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
accounts · AA
2015-04-23
📄
annual-return-company-with-made-up-date-full-list-shareholders
annual-return · AR01
2014-12-15
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
accounts · AA
2014-04-25
📄
annual-return-company-with-made-up-date-full-list-shareholders
annual-return · AR01
2007-05-30
🔒
Charge registered #1
Lender: Clydesdale Bank Public Limited Company
2006-01-01
➕
ROWE, Steven David appointed
director
2003-03-26
🏢
Company incorporated
As DR PLANT HIRE RATHO LIMITED
2003-03-26
➕
ROWE, David Watson appointed
secretary
2003-03-26
➕
ROWE, David Watson appointed
director
2003-03-26
➕
ROWE, Karen Fulton appointed
director
2003-03-26
➕
OSWALDS OF EDINBURGH LIMITED appointed
corporate-nominee-secretary
2003-03-26
➖
OSWALDS OF EDINBURGH LIMITED resigned
corporate-nominee-secretary

Owner dependency

83/100

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

+Long-tenure founder: Senior director has been in place 23 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
+Founder age: Director aged approximately 76 — 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 76 years old. Natural succession window is now.
primary20+ year tenure: Director in role 23 years. Very long tenure is a classic succession signal.
secondaryStable-but-static management: Company is 23 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 David Watson Rowe Individual · British · DOB 02/1950 · age 76	50–75%	—	board control50-75% shares · board control · trust interest · firm interest	06/05/2016

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

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EILDON MANAGEMENT LIMITED→ SC374222 · est 2010 · no financials extracted	—	—	—	—	16y	—	—
ELDEX CONSULTANCY LIMITED→ SC464511 · est 2013 · no financials extracted	—	—	—	—	12y	—	—
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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

Incorporated2003-03-26

Jurisdictionscotland

Primary SIC77320 — Renting and leasing of construction and civil engineering machinery and equipment

Registered office

10 Craigpark Crescent

Ratho

EH28 8RN

Filing status

Accounts

Next due: 2026-12-31

Last made up to: 2025-03-31

Confirmation statement

Next due: 2027-04-09

Last: 2026-03-26

Officers (4 active · 1 resigned)

ROWE, David Watson→

secretary · appointed 2003-03-26

View their other companies + combined net worth →

Active

ROWE, David Watson→

director · ~76y · appointed 2003-03-26

View their other companies + combined net worth →

Active

ROWE, Karen Fulton→

director · ~74y · appointed 2003-03-26

View their other companies + combined net worth →

Active

ROWE, Steven David→

director · ~48y · appointed 2006-01-01

View their other companies + combined net worth →

Active

OSWALDS OF EDINBURGH LIMITED→

corporate-nominee-secretary · appointed 2003-03-26 · resigned 2003-03-26

Resigned

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

Mortgages & charges

Total charges

Outstanding

Active lenders

Status:Lender:1 of 1 shown

			Type	Properties
	outstanding	Virgin Money Clydesdale Bank Public Limited Company	Floating charge	1 property	30/05/2007	—

Click column headers to sort. Use filters above to narrow by status and lender.