patterns / cash_fortress

buyout thesis

Cash fortress

cash is over half of net assets (≥£500k) while headcount stalls — the owner is stockpiling liquidity and winding the business down; the deal can finance itself

the signature — what the register must show
cash ≥ 50% of net assets
cash ≥ £500k
net assets > 0
headcount ≤ last year

Why it matters

The owner is deliberately converting the business into liquidity — hoarding cash while letting operations wind down. This is the balance sheet of someone preparing an exit (or simply refusing all risk).

The play

A self-financing acquisition: the target's own cash covers much of the consideration. Also an exit-structuring conversation for the banker.

How it's kept honest

The badge is recomputed nightly across the whole index, and re-evaluated live the moment a company files — so a match is always a statement about the current register, not a stale list. Like every signal on the radar: a prompt to look closer, never a verdict.