Seller Radar
Frequently asked questions
What buyers ask before commissioning a list — how the screening works, what the records contain, and what we will not claim.
- What counts as a succession signal?
- Structural facts from the public register that together suggest no evident internal succession route: the age band and tenure of the lead director, whether any active director is under 50, how concentrated ownership is across the persons with significant control, whether a successor has ever been appointed, and dated register movement such as a share buyback, a satisfied charge, or a director resigning without a replacement. Each signal is scored separately and linked to the filing it came from.
- Where does the data come from?
- The UK Companies House register — company filings, officers, persons with significant control, charges, and accounts — the decision-maker's other companies on that same register, The Gazette's published corporate-insolvency notices (including solvent members' voluntary liquidations of those other companies), sector registers where one exists for the sector you are screening, the company's own website and its archived history, published news that names the company, and — where one exists — a public business-transfer listing page. It is public information, used as published. We do not buy contact lists or scrape social networks.
- Why is there no EBITDA on the records?
- Because most owner-managed UK companies do not file one. Small companies file abridged or filleted accounts with no profit and loss account, so an EBITDA figure would be a guess presented as a fact. Instead you get the filing regime, the statutory turnover bracket that regime implies, and a labelled estimate — and net assets and employee numbers where those are filed.
- Does the owner know they are on a list?
- No. Nothing is sent to any company on the list by us — Seller Radar produces a drafted approach letter for you to edit and send yourself, in your own name, at your own timing. Screening is done entirely from published filings.
- How do you make sure two buyers don't get the same company?
- Every company delivered to a client is recorded against that engagement and excluded from subsequent lists for other clients in the same sector and region. The ongoing origination service is also de-duplicated against everything already delivered to you, so you never pay twice for the same record.
- Which countries do you cover?
- The United Kingdom only. The screening is built specifically around Companies House filings and UK statutory accounting thresholds, and it would not be honest to apply the same model to another register.
- What does ongoing origination include?
- 50 newly researched prospects each month at £600 per month, plus dated register events on companies already on your list and re-scored records where a new filing changed the picture. It is delivered in the same format as a one-off list and de-duplicated against everything you already have. Cancel anytime — there is no minimum term.
Something not answered here?
Send the sector, size and region you are looking at, and we will come back with a sample record and what a list against those criteria would look like.
Request a sample list