The Great Ownership Transfer: UK Data on 3.4M Companies
McKinsey estimates $5 trillion in US business value is at risk from failed transitions. We analysed 3.4M UK companies. Britain faces the same problem.
McKinsey estimates $5 trillion in US business value is at risk from failed transitions. We analysed 3.4M UK companies. Britain faces the same problem.
Britain's business landscape is about to undergo its largest ownership shift in modern history — and almost nobody is talking about it.
In February 2026, the McKinsey Institute for Economic Mobility published *The Great Ownership Transfer*, a landmark study documenting an unprecedented wave of small-business ownership transitions sweeping the United States. Their findings were stark: six million US businesses will need to change hands by 2035, representing up to $5 trillion in enterprise value. Yet 92% of small-business exits end in closure, not transfer. The businesses don't fail. The market for passing them on simply doesn't work.
The report confirmed something we've been seeing in UK company data for years. So we ran the numbers on this side of the Atlantic.
We analysed 3.4 million active UK companies using public data from Companies House. The picture that emerges is, if anything, more acute than the American one.
McKinsey found that more than half of US small-business owners are now over 55, up from roughly 30% in 2002. One in four is 65 or older.
The UK figures are strikingly similar. Across our database of 3.4 million active companies with director age data:
That one-in-four figure for the 60+ cohort almost exactly matches the US pattern. A quarter of UK businesses are led by directors approaching or past traditional retirement age.
But the UK has an additional structural vulnerability that the US data doesn't capture as cleanly: the single-director company.
This is the most important number in the entire dataset.
Of 3.4 million active UK companies, 1,990,187 have just one director. No co-directors. No named successors. No family members on the board. No internal succession infrastructure whatsoever.
In the US, McKinsey describes the absence of succession planning as a behavioural problem — owners who don't plan ahead. In the UK, it's structural. As we documented in our earlier analysis of Britain's succession crisis, nearly two-thirds of companies are constitutionally incapable of an internal succession because there is nobody else in the building with legal authority over the business.
Of those 2.1 million single-director companies:
These aren't statistics about future risk. These are businesses where the succession clock is already running.
McKinsey's most striking finding was that the majority of US business closures aren't failures — they're viable companies that simply had no path to transfer.
We can see the UK equivalent forming in real time.
When we filter our active company database to find businesses with a sole director over 60, total assets above £50,000, and no succession infrastructure, we find 162,883 companies meeting all three criteria. They hold £158.5 billion in aggregate total assets.
These are not marginal businesses. They are established, asset-backed companies with real economic value. They simply have a single point of failure: one person, approaching retirement, with no plan and no successor.
Widen the lens slightly — sole directors over 60 with any positive assets — and the number rises to 363,557 companies holding £214 billion in total assets. Within that group, 135,586 also have 15+ years of director tenure, indicating the classic founder-operator profile.
At the extreme end, 116,935 companies have a sole director in their 70s, collectively holding £45.9 billion in total assets. For these businesses, the transition isn't a five-year horizon. It's now.
One of McKinsey's most useful contributions is the concept of the "missing middle" — businesses too large and valuable to simply close, but too small to attract institutional buyers or private equity attention.
In the US, they estimate that nearly 80% of projected ownership exits will occur among businesses valued at under $2 million. These firms fall between systems: too complex for startup-oriented support programmes, too small to generate the fees that attract professional intermediaries.
The UK version of this gap is visible in our data. When we look at companies scoring 70 or above for exit readiness on our scoring model — businesses with clear succession signals and reasonable financial health — we find 45,964 companies with total assets above £100,000, holding £111.9 billion in aggregate total assets.
These are the missing middle. They're viable. They're often profitable. They have clear exit triggers. But they're not listed anywhere. They don't have brokers. Most of their owners haven't consciously decided to sell — but the data shows they match every profile of a business that would benefit from an ownership conversation. We tracked what actually happens to these businesses. Of 1.9 million UK dissolutions, 1,239 were viable companies that closed instead of being acquired — the missing middle in precise, company-level detail. We break down the full picture — broker success rates, exit routes, and tax pressure — in our UK Business Exit Statistics.
The sectors where these companies cluster tell their own story. The top five sectors by count of companies scoring 70+ for exit readiness are real estate activities, specialised construction, office administration, management consultancy, and human health. These aren't distressed industries — they're the productive backbone of the UK economy.
Geographically, the highest concentrations sit in Essex, Kent, Surrey, Hampshire, and the West Midlands — prosperous regions where established businesses have been built over decades by owners who are now ageing out. For a full regional breakdown of where these businesses sit, see Where Are the UK's Exit-Ready Businesses?
McKinsey identifies a structural failure in the US: the systems that support entrepreneurship are built for founding companies, not transferring them. Incubators, accelerators, and technical assistance are geared toward startups. Acquisition remains largely invisible, unstandardised, and unsupported.
The UK picture is functionally identical. Business brokers — the traditional route to market — sell only about 20% of the businesses they take on, and that figure is generous because it includes mid-cap deals where completion rates are higher. For small SMEs, the effective success rate is far worse.
The matching problem runs deeper than broker capacity. It's an information problem. Qualified buyers — search fund operators, ETA practitioners, strategic acquirers — spend months searching for businesses that fit their criteria. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of companies displaying clear succession signals sit invisibly in public filing data, unknown to the people who would buy them.
McKinsey frames the solution as building "a coordinated market for ownership transfer." They argue that buying a business should become as visible, supported, and scalable as starting one.
That's precisely the gap we built ExitRadar to address.
The demographic pressures are not going to ease. The 50–60 age bracket in our database contains 942,530 companies — almost a million businesses whose directors will age into the 60+ cohort over the next decade. Behind them, another 919,503 companies sit in the 40–50 bracket. The pipeline of future succession pressure extends decades into the future.
Tax policy is compounding the urgency. Business Asset Disposal Relief now carries an 18% rate, up from 10% just two years ago. The direction of travel is clear: waiting gets progressively more expensive for any owner contemplating an exit.
McKinsey estimates that effective ownership transitions could preserve up to 12 million US jobs and protect $250 billion in annual spending power. The UK numbers are proportionally smaller but no less significant for the communities and employees involved. Our data shows 162,883 viable businesses with a sole director over 60, total assets above £50,000, and no succession plan — collectively holding £158.5 billion in assets.
The businesses exist. The buyers exist. The data to connect them exists. What's been missing is the infrastructure to make those connections at scale.
*This analysis is based on ExitRadar's database of 3.4 million active UK companies, derived from public Companies House filings. All statistics are current as of May 2026 — the underlying universe and scoring shift quarterly as filings update. Director ages are based on 10-year age brackets (precise dates of birth are not stored). Financial figures are drawn from the most recently filed accounts. Enterprise value — which includes earnings multiples and goodwill — would be significantly higher than the balance sheet figures cited here.*
*The McKinsey Institute for Economic Mobility report "The Great Ownership Transfer: A New Era of Business Stewardship" was published in February 2026 and focuses on the US market.*
About ExitRadar: ExitRadar analyses public UK company data to identify businesses showing succession and exit signals. Our reports provide pre-approach intelligence for search fund operators, business brokers, and prospective acquirers — helping qualified buyers find businesses ready to transition before they disappear from the market. Explore companies now.