SECURITY AND FIRE EQUIPMENT SERVICES LTD

🌳Matureactive

SC382879 · ltd · incorporated 2010-07-30

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 15.3y old — refinance window within 12 months

🔒Estimated value

—

Upgrade to see

Turnover

—

year to Oct 2025

Net worth

£781.2k

book net assets

Opportunity

82/100

Exceptional

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What this business does

Primary activity: Security systems service activities

Sector: Administrative & support services

Investor take

Pursue

Active trading company with a 79-year-old founder — textbook succession opportunity.

Opportunity 82/100 (exceptional), bankability 80/100. Strong seller-intent signal (63/100, director aged 79). 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 15.3y

65/100

clean up first

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

· Oldest live charge is 15.3 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 (78/100)

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, 5 with DOB)

Ownership & PSC

2 active PSC(s) of 5 total, 5 with control declared

Director network

Network not yet resolved

Filing history

48 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 £781,211

Cash YoY

-13%

Year on year

Key financials

2 years extracted from filed iXBRL accounts

Cash

£517k

↓ 13% YoY

Net Worth

£781k

~ YoY

Current Assets

£1.0m

↑ 16% YoY

Current Liabilities

—

Hover to see exact values · click legend to toggle series

Financials

Extracted from Companies House accounts · accounting standard unknown

Metric	2025-10-31	2024-10-31
Total assets	£840.7k	£846.5k
Current assets	£1.00M	£863.1k
Cash	£517.4k	£596.7k
Debtors	£404.4k	£142.3k
Net assets	£781.2k	£778.6k

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 accounts

Last 90 days

filing

• 1 accounts

Last 180 days

filing

• 1 accounts

Counts from Companies House filing history.

Corporate timeline (26 events)Click to expand

2026-05-06
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2025-02-04
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2024-03-04
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2023-03-24
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2022-02-21
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2021-04-08
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2020-02-19
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2020-02-10
📄
notification-of-a-person-with-significant-control
persons-with-significant-control · PSC01
2020-02-10
📄
notification-of-a-person-with-significant-control
persons-with-significant-control · PSC01
2020-02-10
📄
cessation-of-a-person-with-significant-control
persons-with-significant-control · PSC07
2020-02-10
📄
cessation-of-a-person-with-significant-control
persons-with-significant-control · PSC07
2019-01-28
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2018-05-18
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2017-11-30
📄
cessation-of-a-person-with-significant-control
persons-with-significant-control · PSC07
2017-11-02
📄
capital-cancellation-shares
capital · SH06
2017-11-02
📄
resolution
resolution · RESOLUTIONS
2017-11-02
📄
capital-return-purchase-own-shares
capital · SH03
2017-09-28
➖
MCLOUGHLIN, Jennifer resigned
director
2011-11-30
➖
MILLAR, George resigned
director
2011-01-28
🔒
Charge registered #1
Lender: The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC
2010-07-30
🏢
Company incorporated
As SECURITY AND FIRE EQUIPMENT SERVICES LTD
2010-07-30
➕
MILLAR, Graeme appointed
director
2010-07-30
➕
MILLAR, Helen appointed
director
2010-07-30
➕
MILLAR, Michael appointed
director
2010-07-30
➕
MCLOUGHLIN, Jennifer appointed
director
2010-07-30
➕
MILLAR, George appointed
director

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 16 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
+Founder age: Director aged approximately 79 — succession pressure is live.
+Family involvement: Multiple officers share a surname — likely family business, which concentrates governance.

Succession & seller-readiness

83/100

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 79 years old. Natural succession window is now.
secondary12+ year tenure: Director in role 16 years.
secondaryStable-but-static management: Company is 16 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 Michael Millar Individual · British · DOB 09/1978 · age 48	25–50%	—	25-50% shares	04/10/2018
Mr Graeme Millar Individual · British · DOB 05/1974 · age 52	25–50%	—	25-50% shares	04/10/2018

3 historic (ceased) PSCs

Mrs Helen Millarceased 04/10/2018· 25-50% shares
Mr George Moultrie Millarceased 31/07/2017· 25-50% shares
Mrs Helen Millarceased 04/10/2018· 50-75% shares

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

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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

Incorporated2010-07-30

Jurisdictionscotland

Primary SIC80200 — Security systems service activities

Registered office

Unit 6 Duke Street

Galashiels

Selkirkshire

TD1 1QD

Filing status

Accounts

Next due: 2027-07-31

Last made up to: 2025-10-31

Confirmation statement

Next due: 2026-08-13

Last: 2025-07-30

Officers (3 active · 2 resigned)

MILLAR, Graeme→

director · ~52y · appointed 2010-07-30

View their other companies + combined net worth →

Active

MILLAR, Helen→

director · ~79y · appointed 2010-07-30

View their other companies + combined net worth →

Active

MILLAR, Michael→

director · ~48y · appointed 2010-07-30

View their other companies + combined net worth →

Active

MCLOUGHLIN, Jennifer→

director · ~46y · appointed 2010-07-30 · resigned 2017-09-28

Resigned

MILLAR, George→

director · ~83y · appointed 2010-07-30 · resigned 2011-11-30

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	Lloyds Banking Group The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC	Floating charge	1 property	28/01/2011	—

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