MACFARLANE YOUNG LIMITED

🌳Matureactive
SC332280 · ltd · incorporated 2007-10-11
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 12.1y old — refinance window within 12 months
🔒Estimated value
—
Upgrade to see
Turnover
—
year to Nov 2024
Net worth
£146.8k
book net assets
Opportunity
83/100
Exceptional
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What this business does
Primary activity: Solicitors
Sector: Professional, scientific & technical
Investor take
Pursue
Active trading company with a 62-year-old founder — textbook succession opportunity.

Opportunity 83/100 (exceptional), bankability 80/100. Strong seller-intent signal (70/100, director aged 62). Share purchase looks the cleaner deal structure. Most likely exit: share sale to pe / searcher (65/100).

🏦

Refinance opportunity

1 live charge · oldest 12.1y

85/100
ready

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

  • · Oldest live charge is 12.1 years old — likely at or near maturity.
  • · Single lender — cleanest path to refinance.
  • · Legal-friction score 15/100 — clean.

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
4 officers (3 active, 4 linked, 3 with DOB)
85
Ownership & PSC
2 active PSC(s) of 3 total, 3 with control declared
90
Director network
2 connected companies via shared directors
51
Filing history
47 filings on record
85
Gazette notices
No matching gazette notices (standard for active companies)
60
Opportunity Score
83/100Exceptional
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
85
Strong succession / seller-readiness signals.
Risk profile
85
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 £146,819
Cash YoY
+26%
Year on year

Key financials

2 years extracted from filed iXBRL accounts
Cash
£122k
↑ 26% YoY
Net Worth
£147k
↑ 20% YoY
Current Assets
£257k
↑ 18% YoY
Current Liabilities
—
£0£51k£103k£154k£205k£257kNov 2023Nov 2024

Hover to see exact values · click legend to toggle series

Financials

Extracted from Companies House accounts · accounting standard unknown
Metric2024-11-302023-11-30
Total assets£161.1k£145.2k
Current assets£256.8k£217.1k
Cash£121.6k£96.8k
Debtors£112.9k£96.7k
Net assets£146.8k£121.9k

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
0
filings
Last 90 days
0
filings
Last 180 days
1
filing
  • • 1 confirmation-statement
Counts from Companies House filing history.
Corporate timeline (23 events)Click to expand
  1. 2025-08-29
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  2. 2024-08-29
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  3. 2023-08-17
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  4. 2023-08-01
    📄
    capital-return-purchase-own-shares
    capital · SH03
  5. 2023-07-31
    📄
    capital-cancellation-shares
    capital · SH06
  6. 2023-07-27
    📄
    cessation-of-a-person-with-significant-control
    persons-with-significant-control · PSC07
  7. 2022-08-31
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  8. 2021-08-30
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  9. 2021-05-05
    📄
    termination-director-company-with-name-termination-date
    officers · TM01
  10. 2020-11-26
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  11. 2020-08-31
    ➖
    WARWICK, Peter James resigned
    director
  12. 2019-08-30
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  13. 2018-08-27
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  14. 2017-08-29
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  15. 2016-10-31
    📄
    change-person-secretary-company-with-change-date
    officers · CH03
  16. 2016-10-31
    📄
    change-person-director-company-with-change-date
    officers · CH01
  17. 2016-10-31
    📄
    change-person-director-company-with-change-date
    officers · CH01
  18. 2014-04-04
    🔒
    Charge registered #1
    Lender: The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC
  19. 2007-10-11
    🏢
    Company incorporated
    As MACFARLANE YOUNG LIMITED
  20. 2007-10-11
    ➕
    O'NEIL, Elizabeth Valerie appointed
    secretary
  21. 2007-10-11
    ➕
    FLETCHER, Anne Constance appointed
    director
  22. 2007-10-11
    ➕
    O'NEIL, Elizabeth Valerie appointed
    director
  23. 2007-10-11
    ➕
    WARWICK, Peter James appointed
    director

Owner dependency

76/100
High — earn-out structure required

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

FACTORS
  • +Two-director setup: Only two active directors — typical of owner-managed SMEs but limits succession.
  • +Long-tenure founder: Senior director has been in place 19 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
  • +Senior director age: Director aged approximately 62 — approaching natural succession window.

Succession & seller-readiness

69/100
Strong succession signal

Multiple signals suggest succession is on the horizon. Candidate for proactive outreach.

SIGNALS
  • secondaryFounder aged 58+: Senior director is approximately 62. Early succession window.
  • secondaryTwo-director governance: Small-team governance. Succession depth is thin but not absent.
  • secondary12+ year tenure: Director in role 19 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.)

Shareholders & ownership

2 active beneficial owners
NameSharesVoting rightsNature of controlNotified
Mrs Anne Constance Fletcher
Individual · British · DOB 12/1969 · age 57
25–50%
25–50%board control25-50% shares · 25-50% voting · board control06/04/2016
Ms Elizabeth Valerie O'Neil
Individual · British · DOB 05/1964 · age 62
25–50%
25–50%board control25-50% shares · 25-50% voting · board control06/04/2016
1 historic (ceased) PSC
  • Mr Peter James Warwickceased 31/12/2022· 25-50% shares · 25-50% voting · board control

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

6 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
Incorporated2007-10-11
Jurisdictionscotland
Primary SIC69102 — Solicitors

Registered office

26 New Street
Paisley
Renfrewshire
PA1 1YB

Filing status

Accounts
Next due: 2026-08-31
Last made up to: 2024-11-30
Confirmation statement
Next due: 2026-10-25
Last: 2025-10-11

Officers (3 active · 1 resigned)

O'NEIL, Elizabeth Valerie→
secretary · appointed 2007-10-11
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
FLETCHER, Anne Constance→
director · ~57y · appointed 2007-10-11
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
O'NEIL, Elizabeth Valerie→
director · ~62y · appointed 2007-10-11
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
WARWICK, Peter James→
director · ~64y · appointed 2007-10-11 · resigned 2020-08-31
Resigned

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

Mortgages & charges

1
Total charges
1
Outstanding
1
Active lenders
Status:Lender:1 of 1 shown
TypeProperties
outstanding
Lloyds Banking Group
The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC
A registered charge—04/04/2014—
Click column headers to sort. Use filters above to narrow by status and lender.

Recent filings (47 total)

confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2025-11-11
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2025-08-29
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2024-11-01
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2024-08-29
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2023-10-11
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2023-08-17
capital-return-purchase-own-shares
capital · SH03
2023-08-01
capital-cancellation-shares
capital · SH06
2023-07-31
cessation-of-a-person-with-significant-control
persons-with-significant-control · PSC07
2023-07-27
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2022-11-04
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2022-08-31
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2021-10-22
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2021-08-30
termination-director-company-with-name-termination-date
officers · TM01
2021-05-05
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2020-11-26