ALBA BIOSCIENCE LIMITED
Company number SC310584 · Monitor this company
This analysis was written by an AI from the company's public filings. It may contain errors or omissions and is not financial or professional advice.
Financial Health Assessment: ALBA BIOSCIENCE LIMITED (SC310584)
Important caveat before examination: The data provided contains the company's structural and compliance records, but no figures from the filed accounts (no turnover, profit, cash, assets, or liabilities). This is like examining a patient in the waiting room: I can check posture, pulse and medical history, but the blood tests are still at the lab. The assessment below is therefore a structural and behavioural diagnosis, with clear signposts to the quantitative tests that must follow.
1. Financial Health Score: B (Provisional)
A solid, outwardly healthy patient — but the grade is provisional until the financial statements are reviewed.
- Why not A: Profitability, liquidity and solvency cannot be verified without the accounts' figures. Additionally, the company's shares appear to be pledged to a bank (see below), which introduces group-level risk.
- Why not C or below: There are no visible symptoms of distress — no overdue filings, no liquidation/administration flags, nearly two decades of continuous trading, a professionally qualified finance officer on the board, and a defensive industry.
2. Key Vital Signs
| Vital Sign | Reading | Interpretation |
|---|---|---|
| Compliance pulse | Accounts and confirmation statements both current; nothing overdue | Regular heart rhythm. Late filing is often the first visible symptom of distress — its absence is genuinely reassuring. |
| Constitution / longevity | Incorporated 2006; ~19 years trading | Has survived the 2008 crisis, Brexit disruption and COVID-19. A resilient immune system. |
| Governance antibodies | Board includes a chartered accountant (name shown to subscribers) as director and secretary | Strong financial oversight embedded in the company — a healthy defence against poor controls. |
| Sector metabolism | SIC 21100 – manufacture of basic pharmaceutical products | Defensive, non-discretionary demand with high regulatory barriers to entry. A steady, reliable metabolism. |
| Ownership bloodline | Wholly owned within the Quotient Limited group; U.S. Bank N.A. also listed as owning >75% of shares | A bank holding shares as a Person with Significant Control almost always indicates a share charge — the shares are pledged as security for group borrowing. This is a hereditary risk factor: the parent's debt sits on this company's ownership structure. |
| Board stability | One director resignation (name shown to subscribers, Dec 2025); three current officers | A single departure is a sniffle, not a fever — but watch for a cluster. |
| Filing transparency | Files Full accounts | Richer disclosure exists at Companies House and should be obtained. |
Tests still pending (critical missing metrics): turnover and margin trend, operating profit, cash balance, working capital (current assets minus current liabilities — the company's ability to pay near-term bills), net assets, gearing (debt vs equity), the P&L reserve trajectory, employee numbers, and the auditor's going-concern statement. Without these, solvency cannot be confirmed.
3. Diagnosis
The patient presents as a structurally sound, well-governed manufacturing subsidiary in a resilient sector. Clean filing discipline over a long trading history suggests organised management and adequate back-office resource — distressed companies almost always show filing symptoms first.
Two conditions warrant monitoring:
- Encumbered ownership (group leverage). U.S. Bank National Association appearing alongside Quotient Limited as a >75% shareholder is a classic signature of shares charged to lenders as collateral. Day-to-day this is neutral, but it means Alba's control could transfer to creditors in a group default scenario. The subsidiary's health is therefore partly inherited from its parent's balance sheet.
- Dated bloodwork. The latest filed accounts are made up to 31 December 2024, with the next set due 31 December 2026. The non-standard due date hints at a likely change of accounting reference date — plausibly to align a 31 March year-end with the parent group, which is benign and common. However, period changes can occasionally be used to defer disclosure, so this should be confirmed rather than assumed.
Minor observations, not symptoms: the nominal share capital (£880.47) is trivially small, but this is normal for a subsidiary whose real equity sits in reserves and share premium we cannot see; the 2007 name change from "Dalglen (No. 1062)" simply reflects a shelf-company origin.
4. Prognosis
Stable to positive, conditional on the parent's health. Pharmaceutical manufacturing demand is non-cyclical, and the company's longevity, governance and compliance all point to continuity. The principal threats are exogenous: group-level debt service, refinancing risk on the facility secured over Alba's shares, and any cash extraction from the subsidiary to support the wider group. The FY2025/26 filing will be the decisive diagnostic event.
5. Recommendations
- Order the blood tests. Download the full filed accounts (and any registered charges) from Companies House. Calculate the current ratio, quick ratio, net assets trend, gearing and interest cover, and track the P&L reserve over several years.
- Read the auditor's report first. A qualified opinion or a "material uncertainty related to going concern" paragraph would immediately move the grade downward.
- Examine the parent. Review Quotient Limited's group accounts for leverage, liquidity and intercompany balances — this subsidiary breathes through the group's bloodstream.
- Map the security. Identify what group debt is secured over Alba's shares and whether cross-default clauses exist.
- Check intra-group flows. Look for intercompany loans, dividend extraction or cash-sweeping arrangements that could drain the subsidiary's own liquidity.
- Monitor the board and the deadline. Set alerts for the 31 December 2026 accounts date and for any further officer departures following the December 2025 resignation.
- For trading counterparties: until the figures are verified, consider parent guarantees, shorter credit terms or credit insurance rather than relying on the clean compliance record alone.