Sold to a trade buyer
Another company takes control and the previous owners leave the register. Includes sales from one group to another.
Shown as Inferred: high or medium confidence
Know when a business is sold, from the filing, not the press.
ExitSignals reads Companies House filings for UK business sale and liquidity events: company sales, solvent liquidations and share buybacks, most of them small private deals that never make the news. Each event shows how it’s confirmed, the filings behind it, and the professionals who could make an introduction.
- Confirmation status on every event
- Bands, never personal wealth figures
- For FCA-authorised firms
Built on public filingsCompanies HouseThe PSC registerLiquidation and share filings
This week’s events
+ 9 more in your area this week
See a full event →
- 5,143UK company sales found in filings in the 12 months to 14 October 2026
- 86–90%of the sales we show were real changes of owner, in four rounds of independent checks
- 250,184changes of company ownership tracked since 2016
- 6–7 daystypical time from a change of owner to the public register
From CompanyTrack’s ownership-change data, built from Companies House filings and last loaded on 14 October 2026. Sales are counted at companies with 5 or more staff or £1m+ turnover; the time to the register is the median.
How many events happen where your clients are?
Pick a region and the sector your clients know best. You’ll see how many sale and liquidity events a typical month brings there.
- Recorded transactions and exit indicators, kept apart
- The confirmation status on every one
- Companies you name left out
Hear about it from the filing, not the deal press.
When a private company is sold, the first public trace is usually at Companies House: a new owner on the register, a declaration of solvency, a return of shares bought back. Press coverage, if it comes at all, comes later, and mostly for the bigger deals.
- 1 The deal completes
The shares change hands, or the owners decide to wind up a solvent company and take out its cash.
- 2 It reaches the register
A change of owner is filed about a week later, typically. Liquidation and buyback filings carry their exact dates.
- 3 The press reports it
If the deal is big or newsworthy enough. Deal databases built from press reporting pick it up here.
- 4 Everyone gets in touch
Banks, advisers and brokers who read the same news all write to the same people.
With ExitSignals You hear at step 2, from the filing
With press-based deal data Step 3 at best, and only for deals that get reported
In the 12 months to 14 October 2026, CompanyTrack’s data found 5,143 UK company sales in Companies House filings, including 304 sales to employee ownership trusts, 664 to new private owners and 89 management buyouts. Most are small private deals that a product built from press deal reporting is unlikely to see.
Two kinds of event, clearly labelled.
Recorded transactions say something has happened, and how sure we are of it. Potential exit indicators are context from filings: worth knowing, never a forecast.
Recorded transactions
Evidence of a sale, buyback or other ownership event, with its confirmation status.Private equity buyout
A new company backed by a fund buys control, often with acquisition finance registered against the company.
Shown as Inferred: high or medium confidence
Management or employee buyout
The managers buy the company, or it’s sold to an employee ownership trust, which usually pays the owners over several years.
Shown as Inferred: high or medium confidence
Solvent liquidation
The directors declare the company can pay all its debts, and the owners wind it up to take out what’s left: a members’ voluntary liquidation.
Shown as Confirmed by filing (LIQ01)
Share buyback
The company buys back shares from a shareholder, so cash has moved to the person who sold. It doesn’t mean the company is for sale.
Shown as Confirmed by filing (SH03)
Stake sold down
An owner’s share of the company falls between one shareholder list and the next, without the company changing hands.
Shown as Inferred from shareholder lists
Potential exit indicators
Labelled context from filings. Not a prediction that anyone will sell.New holding company
A holding company is put above the same owners. Often tax or succession planning; sometimes the first step towards a sale.
In our backtest About twice the usual chance of a sale within 3 years
Share-class changes
New classes of shares are created, or existing ones changed: often to bring in family members, managers or investors.
In our backtest About twice the usual chance of a sale within 3 years
Ownership restructuring
A capital reduction, a minority stake sold, or owners bringing in co-owners while keeping control.
In our backtest About twice the usual chance of a sale within 3 years
Leadership changes
A founder or long-serving owner steps down from the board, or a new chair or managing director is appointed.
In our backtest Not measured yet: shown as context only
In our backtest of owner-managed companies, about 3 in 100 were sold within three years. Each indicator above roughly doubled that, so most companies with one were still not sold. A combined “likely to sell” score didn’t reach our bar for a prediction, so ExitSignals doesn’t make one.
Not just a headline.
The filings behind every event.
Each event answers the four questions your compliance team and your adviser would both ask: what happened, how sure we are, who’s involved, and what (if anything) to say. Pick an example.
Built for advisers, and for their compliance team.
- Earlier than the deal press
From the filing itself, typically within days of the deal, and whether or not anyone writes about it.
- A status on every event
Confirmed by a filing, or inferred from several with high or medium confidence. You always know which.
- The deals others miss
Trade sales of family firms, employee ownership trusts, management buyouts and solvent liquidations, at companies the press rarely covers.
- Bands, not guesses
Bands for the stake and the company’s size, with how we worked them out. Never a figure for anyone’s personal wealth.
- An introduction route
The accountants, liquidators and other professionals named in the filings, so the first approach can come through someone the owner already trusts.
- Ready for compliance
Seats for FCA-authorised firms only, a record of every event viewed, and anyone who objects removed the same day.
Three steps.
No setup on your side.
- 1We check your firm
Give us your FCA firm reference number. We check it on the FCA register before we send a sample or set up any seats.
- 2Choose your area
The regions and sectors your clients come from, and the smallest stake band worth knowing about. Name any companies to leave out.
- 3Get the week’s events
A short email every Monday with new events, each with its status, the filings behind it and the introduction route.
ExitSignals to youMonday, 7:00am
Good morning. Here are this week’s events in your area:
Plus 9 more, including a solvent liquidation in Reading and two new holding companies, shown as context.
Questions wealth managers ask us.
Get a free sample for your area.
For FCA-authorised firms. Tell us who you are and where your clients are, and we’ll send you a sample of last month’s events, with the filings behind each one.
- Events from your own area
- The confirmation status and filings on every one
- No cost and no obligation
Thanks
We’ve got your request. Once we’ve checked your firm on the FCA register, we’ll email your sample to you.