COLIN ARMSTRONG ASSOCIATES LIMITED

🌳Matureactive

SC259880 · ltd · incorporated 2003-11-27

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 22.2y old — refinance window within 12 months

🔒Estimated value

—

Upgrade to see

Turnover

—

year to Mar 2025

Net worth

£1.64M

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

Asset-holding vehicle with a 67-year-old founder — textbook succession opportunity.

Opportunity 82/100 (exceptional), bankability 85/100. Strong seller-intent signal (83/100, director aged 67). Share purchase looks the cleaner deal structure. Most likely exit: share sale to pe / searcher (65/100).

🏦

Refinance opportunity

1 live charge · oldest 22.2y

85/100

ready

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

· Oldest live charge is 22.2 years old — likely at or near maturity.
· Single lender — cleanest path to refinance.
· Legal-friction score 15/100 — clean.

Data confidence

Overall: medium (79/100)

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 (3 active, 5 linked, 3 with DOB)

Ownership & PSC

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

Director network

1 connected companies via shared directors

Filing history

60 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 · accounting standard not declared

Positive net assets

Net assets £1,642,062

Cash YoY

+5%

Year on year

Key financials

2 years extracted from filed iXBRL accounts

Cash

£1.3m

↑ 4.7% YoY

Net Worth

£1.6m

↑ 3.8% YoY

Current Assets

£1.4m

↓ 1.1% YoY

Current Liabilities

—

Hover to see exact values · click legend to toggle series

Financials

Extracted from Companies House accounts · accounting standard unknown

Metric	2025-03-31	2024-03-31
Total assets	£1.65M	£1.58M
Current assets	£1.42M	£1.44M
Cash	£1.32M	£1.26M
Debtors	£98.8k	£174.1k
Net assets	£1.64M	£1.58M

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

filings

• 1 confirmation-statement
• 1 accounts

Counts from Companies House filing history.

Corporate timeline (25 events)Click to expand

2025-11-27
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-unaudited-abridged
accounts · AA
2024-08-14
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-unaudited-abridged
accounts · AA
2023-08-22
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-unaudited-abridged
accounts · AA
2022-08-08
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-unaudited-abridged
accounts · AA
2021-12-07
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-unaudited-abridged
accounts · AA
2020-10-19
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-unaudited-abridged
accounts · AA
2019-10-15
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-unaudited-abridged
accounts · AA
2018-11-16
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-unaudited-abridged
accounts · AA
2017-10-20
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-unaudited-abridged
accounts · AA
2016-12-20
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
accounts · AA
2015-12-23
📄
annual-return-company-with-made-up-date-full-list-shareholders
annual-return · AR01
2015-09-17
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
accounts · AA
2014-12-10
📄
annual-return-company-with-made-up-date-full-list-shareholders
annual-return · AR01
2014-12-10
📍
change-sail-address-company-with-old-address-new-address
address · AD02
2014-12-09
📍
move-registers-to-registered-office-company-with-new-address
address · AD04
2013-10-16
🔓
Charge satisfied #1
2012-01-13
➖
MARR, John Kinnaird resigned
director
2008-06-27
➕
MARR, John Kinnaird appointed
director
2004-02-17
🔒
Charge registered #1
Lender: The Governor and Company of the Bank of Scotland
2003-11-27
🏢
Company incorporated
As COLIN ARMSTRONG ASSOCIATES LIMITED
2003-11-27
➕
ARMSTRONG, Sandra appointed
secretary
2003-11-27
➕
ARMSTRONG, Colin James appointed
director
2003-11-27
➕
ARMSTRONG, Sandra appointed
director
2003-11-27
➕
OSWALDS OF EDINBURGH LIMITED appointed
corporate-nominee-secretary
2003-11-27
➖
OSWALDS OF EDINBURGH LIMITED resigned
corporate-nominee-secretary

Owner dependency

100/100

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.
+Founder name in company name: Company name contains director surname "ARMSTRONG" — strong identity link between founder and business.
+Long-tenure founder: Senior director has been in place 22 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
+Founder age: Director aged approximately 67 — 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 67. 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 22 years. Very long tenure is a classic succession signal.
secondaryStable-but-static management: Company is 22 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

2 active beneficial owners

Name	Shares	Voting rights	Nature of control	Notified
Mr Colin James Armstrong Individual · British · DOB 12/1959 · age 67	50–75%	—	50-75% shares	06/04/2016
Mrs Sandra Armstrong Individual · British · DOB 09/1963 · age 63	25–50%	—	25-50% shares	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

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INNES & MACKAY LIMITED→ SC283654 · est 2005	—	—	£571.2k	—	21y	83	61y
SELF STORAGE - 4 U LIMITED→ SC261522 · est 2004	—	—	—	9	22y	83	82y
ACSMID (HOLDINGS) LIMITED→ SC177791 · est 1997	—	—	£41.8k	—	28y	82	71y
ANSER PROFESSIONAL SERVICES LIMITED→ SC246199 · est 2003	—	—	£56.4k	—	23y	82	62y
AWS OCEAN ENERGY LIMITED→ SC268223 · est 2004	—	—	—	300	21y	82	64y
BAYHANARTS LIMITED→ SC097397 · est 1986	—	—	—	0	40y	82	84y
CALEDONIAN ENERGY MANAGEMENT LIMITED→ SC193616 · est 1999	—	—	£22.4k	—	27y	82	64y
CAMPBELL PLANT (LOCHABER) LTD→ SC303491 · est 2006	—	—	—	4	19y	82	66y
ECHOMASTER MARINE LIMITED→ SC286015 · est 2005	—	—	—	11	20y	82	80y
VGN STV LIMITED→ SC799946 · est 2024 · no financials extracted	—	—	—	—	2y	—	—

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

Incorporated2003-11-27

Jurisdictionscotland

Primary SIC71129 — Other engineering activities

Registered office

Lyle House, Pavilion 1

Fairways Business Park

Inverness

Highland

IV2 6AA

Filing status

Accounts

Next due: 2026-12-31

Last made up to: 2025-03-31

Confirmation statement

Next due: 2026-12-11

Last: 2025-11-27

Officers (3 active · 2 resigned)

ARMSTRONG, Sandra→

secretary · appointed 2003-11-27

View their other companies + combined net worth →

Active

ARMSTRONG, Colin James→

director · ~67y · appointed 2003-11-27

View their other companies + combined net worth →

Active

ARMSTRONG, Sandra→

director · ~63y · appointed 2003-11-27

View their other companies + combined net worth →

Active

OSWALDS OF EDINBURGH LIMITED→

corporate-nominee-secretary · appointed 2003-11-27 · resigned 2003-11-27

Resigned

MARR, John Kinnaird→

director · ~80y · appointed 2008-06-27 · resigned 2012-01-13

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
	satisfied	Lloyds Banking Group The Governor and Company of the Bank of Scotland	Bond & floating charge	1 property	17/02/2004	16/10/2013