HOPEBURN LIMITED

💤Zombieactive
SC316304 · ltd · incorporated 2007-02-12
Investment thesis
Zombie company — trading but stalled; unlikely mover.
Why interesting: Quiet, steady; could be a succession or carve-out candidate with the right conversation.
Why risky: No growth signal; thin margin for error on price.
🔒Estimated value
—
Upgrade to see
Turnover
—
year to Dec 2025
Net worth
—
book net assets
Opportunity
82/100
Exceptional
🔔
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What this business does
Primary activity: Combined office administrative service activities
Sector: Administrative & support services
Investor take
Pursue
Active trading company with a 77-year-old founder — textbook succession opportunity.

Opportunity 82/100 (exceptional), bankability 85/100. Strong seller-intent signal (83/100, director aged 77). Share purchase looks the cleaner deal structure. Biggest value-creation lever: Broaden director team. Sole director creates succession risk and reduces buyer comfort. Appoint a second director or strong #2. Most likely exit: share sale to pe / searcher (73/100).

🏦

Refinance opportunity

1 live charge · oldest 15.0y

45/100
under pressure

Refinance would be pressure-driven, not opportunity-driven. Expect tighter margins and covenant scrutiny.

  • · Oldest live charge is 15.0 years old — likely at or near maturity.
  • · Single lender — cleanest path to refinance.
  • · Distress signals active — lender appetite narrows.

Data confidence

Overall: high (80/100)

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
75
Lenders & charges
1 charges (1/1 with lender, 1/1 with type)
90
Directors & officers
5 officers (1 active, 5 linked, 4 with DOB)
86
Ownership & PSC
0 active PSC(s) of 1 total, 1 with control declared
90
Director network
2 connected companies via shared directors
51
Filing history
62 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.

Key financials

2 years extracted from filed iXBRL accounts
Cash
—
Net Worth
—
Current Assets
—
Current Liabilities
—
£0£0£0£0£0£0Dec 2024Dec 2025

Hover to see exact values · click legend to toggle series

Financials

Extracted from Companies House accounts · accounting standard unknown
Metric2025-12-312024-12-31
Average employees300300

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
0
filings
Last 90 days
4
filings
  • • 2 persons-with-significant-control
  • • 1 accounts
  • • 1 confirmation-statement
Last 180 days
4
filings
  • • 2 persons-with-significant-control
  • • 1 accounts
  • • 1 confirmation-statement
Counts from Companies House filing history.
Corporate timeline (29 events)Click to expand
  1. 2026-04-29
    📄
    notification-of-a-person-with-significant-control-statement
    persons-with-significant-control · PSC08
  2. 2026-04-22
    📄
    cessation-of-a-person-with-significant-control
    persons-with-significant-control · PSC07
  3. 2026-03-11
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  4. 2025-08-01
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  5. 2024-09-06
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  6. 2024-05-14
    📄
    termination-director-company-with-name-termination-date
    officers · TM01
  7. 2024-05-14
    📄
    termination-secretary-company-with-name-termination-date
    officers · TM02
  8. 2024-05-13
    ➖
    MCCANN, John Lewis resigned
    secretary
  9. 2024-05-13
    ➖
    MCCANN, John Lewis resigned
    director
  10. 2024-03-16
    📄
    termination-director-company-with-name-termination-date
    officers · TM01
  11. 2024-03-16
    📄
    change-person-director-company-with-change-date
    officers · CH01
  12. 2024-03-03
    ➖
    MCCANN, Peter John resigned
    director
  13. 2023-05-16
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  14. 2022-05-23
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  15. 2021-07-08
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  16. 2021-05-31
    📄
    change-person-director-company-with-change-date
    officers · CH01
  17. 2020-09-26
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  18. 2019-06-18
    📄
    mortgage-satisfy-charge-full
    mortgage · MR04
  19. 2019-06-18
    🔓
    Charge satisfied #1
  20. 2019-06-12
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  21. 2018-09-26
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  22. 2011-05-24
    🔒
    Charge registered #1
    Lender: Lombard North Central PLC
  23. 2011-02-09
    ➕
    MCCANN, Margaret Ann, Dr appointed
    director
  24. 2011-02-09
    ➕
    MCCANN, Margaret Ann, Dr appointed
    director
  25. 2011-02-09
    ➖
    MCCANN, Margaret Ann, Dr resigned
    director
  26. 2009-10-01
    ➕
    MCCANN, John Lewis appointed
    director
  27. 2007-02-12
    🏢
    Company incorporated
    As HOPEBURN LIMITED
  28. 2007-02-12
    ➕
    MCCANN, John Lewis appointed
    secretary
  29. 2007-02-12
    ➕
    MCCANN, Peter John appointed
    director

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
  • +Sole director: Only one active director — all governance concentrated on one person.
  • +Long-tenure founder: Senior director has been in place 15 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
  • +Founder age: Director aged approximately 77 — succession pressure is live.

Succession & seller-readiness

98/100
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 77 years old. Natural succession window is now.
  • primarySole active director: Only one director in control. No visible successor — buyers solve the succession problem.
  • secondary12+ year tenure: Director in role 15 years.
  • secondaryStable-but-static management: Company is 19 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.)
🔒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

8 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
Incorporated2007-02-12
Jurisdictionscotland
Primary SIC82110 — Combined office administrative service activities

Registered office

27 North Bridge Street
Hawick
Borders
TD9 9BD
Scotland

Filing status

Accounts
Next due: 2027-09-30
Last made up to: 2025-12-31
Confirmation statement
Next due: 2027-02-26
Last: 2026-02-12

Officers (1 active · 4 resigned)

MCCANN, Margaret Ann, Dr→
director · ~77y · appointed 2011-02-09
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
MCCANN, John Lewis→
secretary · appointed 2007-02-12 · resigned 2024-05-13
Resigned
MCCANN, John Lewis→
director · ~81y · appointed 2009-10-01 · resigned 2024-05-13
Resigned
MCCANN, Margaret Ann, Dr→
director · ~77y · appointed 2011-02-09 · resigned 2011-02-09
Resigned
MCCANN, Peter John→
director · ~86y · appointed 2007-02-12 · resigned 2024-03-03
Resigned

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

Mortgages & charges

1
Total charges
0
Outstanding
0
Active lenders
Status:Lender:1 of 1 shown
TypeProperties
satisfied
Lombard North Central
Lombard North Central PLC
Marine mortgage1 property24/05/201118/06/2019

Recent filings (62 total)

notification-of-a-person-with-significant-control-statement
persons-with-significant-control · PSC08
2026-04-29
cessation-of-a-person-with-significant-control
persons-with-significant-control · PSC07
2026-04-22
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2026-03-11
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2026-03-04
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2025-08-01
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2025-02-12
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2024-09-06
termination-director-company-with-name-termination-date
officers · TM01
2024-05-14
termination-secretary-company-with-name-termination-date
officers · TM02
2024-05-14
termination-director-company-with-name-termination-date
officers · TM01
2024-03-16
change-person-director-company-with-change-date
officers · CH01
2024-03-16
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2024-02-12
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2023-05-16
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2023-02-13
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2022-05-23