We update the research as new filings and ownership changes appear. How we count them
What we study
Private companies
Financial performance, ownership, management, succession and borrowing.
Transactions
Who bought whom, when, and what pricing evidence is available.
Buyers
Trade acquirers, private equity firms, portfolio companies and overseas groups with a reason to look at the UK.
Market signals
New filings, ownership changes, director movements, borrowing and other events that may change the picture.
From the research
Who owns the mid-market, and who buys it.
Ownership
43%
of the companies in our core universe belong to a larger group. 31% are controlled by individuals.
Show the figures
| Companies | Share | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of a larger group | 13,233 | 43% |
| Owned by individuals | 9,694 | 31% |
| Not clear from the register | 6,272 | 20% |
| Private equity and other institutions | 1,779 | 6% |
Companies House register of people with significant control; Calderwood Partners analysis, 26th September 2026.
Acquisitions
10,426
UK companies taken over by a trade buyer between 2019 and 2025, 57% of them by a buyer that had bought before.
Show the figures
| Year | Companies | Share of the period |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 1,167 | 11.2% |
| 2020 | 922 | 8.8% |
| 2021 | 1,436 | 13.8% |
| 2022 | 1,614 | 15.5% |
| 2023 | 1,619 | 15.5% |
| 2024 | 1,892 | 18.1% |
| 2025 | 1,776 | 17.0% |
Companies filing full, medium-sized or group accounts; a company sold on since appears under its latest buyer. Calderwood Partners analysis, 27th September 2026.
Why it matters
Research before outreach. Evidence before assumption.
- 1
Research
What happened.
Companies, owners, buyers and transactions, from the public record.
- 2
Relationships
What is happening now.
Conversations with buyers, investors and advisers across the market.
- 3
Transactions
What actually mattered.
The sales we advise on, and what decided them.
Each feeds the others: what we learn on a transaction sharpens the research and the next conversation.
The aim is not to build a bigger spreadsheet. It is to ask better questions:
Who has actually bought businesses like this?
Which buyers acquire repeatedly?
Which overseas groups already operate in the UK?
Which investors have a genuine reason to be interested?
What has changed at the company or in its market?
Methodology and caveats
Our research is built mainly from public records, including Companies House filings.
Some measures are estimates, particularly valuations. Pricing is recorded only where a buyer’s own accounts disclose it.
We use the research to inform judgement, not to pretend there is certainty where there is not.
How the figures on this site are counted
- Sources
- Filed accounts, the register of people with significant control, director records and registered charges, with other official records where they help.
- Core universe
- UK private companies whose latest accounts show turnover of £10–100m, leaving out any with an insolvency notice. Holding companies are included.
- Transactions
- Changes of majority control on the register since 2019, among companies filing full, medium-sized or group accounts. A trade takeover is one where a trading company took control; a private equity deal one where the chain of owners ends at a fund. A company sold on since appears under its latest buyer.
- Pricing
- Recorded only where a buyer’s own accounts disclose the consideration, which is so for a minority of transactions. It is the price of that transaction, not a valuation of any other business.
- Rounding
- Headline figures are rounded down and dated. Each insight sets out its own sample, period and limits.
- Limits
- The register shows control, not always the people behind it, and some ownership is not clear from it. Our data covers the companies we have looked at, not every transaction in the market.
Read the research.
We publish selected findings from our work on the UK private-company market.
or speak with a partner about what it means for your business