PITFERN LTD

💤Zombieactive
SC524206 · ltd · incorporated 2016-01-14
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 2024
Net worth
book net assets
Opportunity
73/100
Strong
🔔
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What this business does
Primary activity: Licenced restaurants
Sector: Accommodation & food service
Investor take
Pursue
Strong opportunity: active trading company with strong profile and bankable structure.

Opportunity 73/100 (strong), bankability 75/100. High owner-dependency — earn-out structure likely required for clean transition. 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 (58/100).

🏦

Refinance opportunity

4 live charges · 2 lenders · oldest 10.2y

30/100
under pressure

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

  • · Oldest live charge is 10.2 years old — likely at or near maturity.
  • · Two lenders — manageable, but coordination required.
  • · Distress signals active — lender appetite narrows.

Data confidence

Overall: high (81/100)

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
4 charges (4/4 with lender, 4/4 with type)
90
Directors & officers
4 officers (1 active, 4 linked, 4 with DOB)
90
Ownership & PSC
1 active PSC(s) of 2 total, 2 with control declared
90
Director network
3 connected companies via shared directors
54
Filing history
34 filings on record
85
Gazette notices
No matching gazette notices (standard for active companies)
60
Opportunity Score
73/100Strong
PassWatchWorth a lookStrongExceptional 

Solid opportunity signal. Worth a dedicated memo and management meeting.

Business quality
70
Active, clean filings, stable charge profile.
Acquirability
55
Some acquirability indicators.
Risk profile
77
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 2023Dec 2024

Hover to see exact values · click legend to toggle series

Financials

Extracted from Companies House accounts · FRS 102
Metric2024-12-312023-12-31
Average employees14001100

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
0
filings
Last 90 days
0
filings
Last 180 days
1
filing
  • 1 confirmation-statement
Counts from Companies House filing history.
Corporate timeline (30 events)Click to expand
  1. 2025-04-07
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  2. 2024-03-25
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  3. 2023-06-19
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  4. 2022-05-25
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  5. 2021-07-28
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  6. 2020-05-20
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  7. 2020-03-21
    📄
    mortgage-satisfy-charge-full
    mortgage · MR04
  8. 2020-03-21
    🔓
    Charge satisfied #2
  9. 2019-11-30
    📄
    mortgage-create-with-deed-with-charge-number-charge-creation-date
    mortgage · MR01
  10. 2019-11-14
    🔒
    Charge registered #4
    Lender: The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC
  11. 2019-11-13
    📄
    notification-of-a-person-with-significant-control
    persons-with-significant-control · PSC01
  12. 2019-11-13
    📄
    cessation-of-a-person-with-significant-control
    persons-with-significant-control · PSC07
  13. 2019-11-13
    📄
    termination-director-company-with-name-termination-date
    officers · TM01
  14. 2019-11-08
    📄
    mortgage-satisfy-charge-full
    mortgage · MR04
  15. 2019-11-08
    🔓
    Charge satisfied #1
  16. 2019-10-31
    MACARTHUR, Albertina Wilson resigned
    director
  17. 2019-10-23
    📄
    mortgage-create-with-deed-with-charge-number-charge-creation-date
    mortgage · MR01
  18. 2019-10-21
    🔒
    Charge registered #3
    Lender: The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC
  19. 2019-03-13
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  20. 2019-02-08
    📄
    termination-director-company-with-name-termination-date
    officers · TM01
  21. 2019-01-18
    📄
    appoint-person-director-company-with-name-date
    officers · AP01
  22. 2019-01-09
    PAPP, Reka appointed
    director
  23. 2019-01-09
    POWELL, Jacqueline resigned
    director
  24. 2017-08-12
    MACARTHUR, Alexander Donald resigned
    director
  25. 2017-07-10
    POWELL, Jacqueline appointed
    director
  26. 2016-03-29
    🔒
    Charge registered #2
    Lender: Santander UK PLC
  27. 2016-03-03
    🔒
    Charge registered #1
    Lender: Santander UK PLC
  28. 2016-01-14
    🏢
    Company incorporated
    As PITFERN LTD
  29. 2016-01-14
    MACARTHUR, Albertina Wilson appointed
    director
  30. 2016-01-14
    MACARTHUR, Alexander Donald appointed
    director

Owner dependency

75/100
High — earn-out structure required

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

FACTORS
  • +Sole director: Only one active director — all governance concentrated on one person.

Succession & seller-readiness

45/100
Moderate signal

Some succession indicators present. Worth watching; approach if sector/strategy fits.

SIGNALS
  • primarySole active director: Only one director in control. No visible successor — buyers solve the succession problem.

Red flags

1 med ·
Charge satisfaction-then-recreation pattern
medium

Multiple instances where a charge was satisfied and a new charge created within 6 months. Suggests active refinancing cycle.

Shareholders & ownership

1 active beneficial owner · dominant holder ≥75%
NameSharesVoting rightsNature of controlNotified
Miss Reka Papp
Individual · Romanian · DOB 03/1984 · age 42
75100%
75-100% shares31/10/2019
1 historic (ceased) PSC
  • Mr Alexander Donald Macarthurceased 31/10/2019· 50-75% shares

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

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
Incorporated2016-01-14
Jurisdictionscotland
Primary SIC56101 — Licenced restaurants

Registered office

Fern Cottage
Ferry Road
Pitlochry
Perthshire
PH16 5DD
Scotland

Filing status

Accounts
Next due: 2026-09-30
Last made up to: 2024-12-31
Confirmation statement
Next due: 2026-11-25
Last: 2025-11-11

Officers (1 active · 3 resigned)

PAPP, Reka
director · ~42y · appointed 2019-01-09
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
MACARTHUR, Albertina Wilson
director · ~68y · appointed 2016-01-14 · resigned 2019-10-31
Resigned
MACARTHUR, Alexander Donald
director · ~69y · appointed 2016-01-14 · resigned 2017-08-12
Resigned
POWELL, Jacqueline
director · ~56y · appointed 2017-07-10 · resigned 2019-01-09
Resigned

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

Mortgages & charges

4
Total charges
2
Outstanding
1
Active lenders
Status:Lender:4 of 4 shown
TypeProperties
outstanding
Lloyds Banking Group
The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC
A registered charge1 property14/11/2019
outstanding
Lloyds Banking Group
The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC
A registered charge21/10/2019
satisfied
Santander
Santander UK PLC
A registered charge1 property29/03/201621/03/2020
satisfied
Santander
Santander UK PLC
A registered charge03/03/201608/11/2019
Click column headers to sort. Use filters above to narrow by status and lender.

Recent filings (34 total)

confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2025-11-18
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2025-04-07
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2024-11-11
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2024-03-25
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2023-12-17
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2023-06-19
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2022-12-08
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2022-05-25
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2021-11-22
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2021-07-28
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2020-11-20
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2020-05-20
mortgage-satisfy-charge-full
mortgage · MR04
2020-03-21
mortgage-create-with-deed-with-charge-number-charge-creation-date
mortgage · MR01
2019-11-30
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2019-11-13