MICHAEL POTTINGER ENGINEERING LIMITED

🌳Matureactive

SC395494 · ltd · incorporated 2011-03-15

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 15.0y 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: Other engineering activities

Sector: Professional, scientific & technical

Investor take

Pursue

Active trading company with a 62-year-old founder — textbook succession opportunity.

Opportunity 82/100 (exceptional), bankability 80/100. Strong seller-intent signal (70/100, director aged 62). 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 (73/100).

🏦

Refinance opportunity

1 live charge · oldest 15.0y

65/100

clean up first

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

· Oldest live charge is 15.0 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

2 officers (2 active, 2 linked, 2 with DOB)

Ownership & PSC

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

Director network

Network not yet resolved

Filing history

31 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	3	300

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

filing

• 1 confirmation-statement

Last 180 days

filings

• 1 confirmation-statement
• 1 accounts

Counts from Companies House filing history.

Corporate timeline (19 events)Click to expand

2025-12-23
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2024-12-20
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2023-12-22
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2022-12-14
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2021-12-20
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2020-12-14
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2019-12-09
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2018-11-27
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2017-12-13
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2016-12-14
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
accounts · AA
2016-04-28
📄
annual-return-company-with-made-up-date-full-list-shareholders
annual-return · AR01
2015-11-25
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
accounts · AA
2015-05-11
📄
annual-return-company-with-made-up-date-full-list-shareholders
annual-return · AR01
2014-11-06
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
accounts · AA
2014-03-24
📄
annual-return-company-with-made-up-date-full-list-shareholders
annual-return · AR01
2011-05-06
🔒
Charge registered #1
Lender: The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC
2011-03-15
🏢
Company incorporated
As MICHAEL POTTINGER ENGINEERING LIMITED
2011-03-15
➕
POTTINGER, Michael appointed
director
2011-03-15
➕
POTTINGER, Shirley 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

+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 "POTTINGER" — strong identity link between founder and business.
+Long-tenure founder: Senior director has been in place 15 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
+Senior director age: Director aged approximately 62 — approaching natural succession window.
+Family involvement: Multiple officers share a surname — likely family business, which concentrates governance.
+No director turnover: Company is 15 years old with no director changes — suggests a very tight-knit founder team never broadened.

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 15 years.
secondaryStable-but-static management: Company is 15 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 Pottinger Individual · Scottish · DOB 07/1969 · age 57	25–50%	—	25-50% shares	15/03/2017
Mrs Shirley Pottinger Individual · Scottish · DOB 06/1964 · age 62	25–50%	—	25-50% shares	15/03/2017

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

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.

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Company details

Statusactive

Typeltd

Incorporated2011-03-15

Jurisdictionscotland

Primary SIC71129 — Other engineering activities

Registered office

Soundcill

Bridge End

Shetland

ZE2 9LE

Filing status

Accounts

Next due: 2026-12-31

Last made up to: 2025-03-31

Confirmation statement

Next due: 2027-03-29

Last: 2026-03-15

Officers (2 active · 0 resigned)

POTTINGER, Michael→

director · ~57y · appointed 2011-03-15

View their other companies + combined net worth →

Active

POTTINGER, Shirley→

director · ~62y · appointed 2011-03-15

View their other companies + combined net worth →

Active

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	06/05/2011	—

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