Charlton Baker Group Structure Chart & Subsidiaries

Executive summary

[CHARLTON BAKER LIMITED](/company/07179787) (company number 07179787) is an active UK accounting and advisory firm incorporated on 5 March 2010. Following an ownership restructuring notified on 2 April 2026, the company is between 75% and 100% owned and controlled by holding entity Rex Bidco Limited (17072961), which is in turn wholly controlled upstream by Rex Midco Limited. A reverse PSC search reveals that Charlton Baker Limited directly holds significant control over 16 downstream UK subsidiaries, spanning regional accountancy practices, specialist taxation services, and audit vehicles.

What a Companies House search shows: the upward limitation

A standard search on the Companies House register operates in a single direction: upwards. Searching for an operating or holding entity displays its incorporation details, registered office, filing history, active officers, and the parties who control it. The register does not provide an outward or downward view of the corporate entities that the company itself owns.

For Charlton Baker Limited, a direct query on the public register outlines its corporate profile under SIC code 69201 (accounting and auditing activities) and its management board. The active board of directors includes:

Elliot Charles Cargill (appointed 29 November 2013, born April 1978)
Owain Cassidy (appointed 1 April 2024, born June 1980)
Victoria Greenard (appointed 4 March 2024, born July 1972)
Luke Rudman (appointed 1 April 2026, born December 1984)
Jenna Sartin (appointed 1 April 2022, born January 1987)
Scott John Sartin (appointed 5 March 2010, born October 1977)

The filing history also records previous directorships held by Steven Antony Little (resigned 28 February 2025), Claire Eva Sartin (resigned 31 March 2018), Jonathan Savage (secretary, resigned 20 December 2018), Rex Victor Charlton (resigned 28 February 2012), Philip Mark Evans (resigned 19 September 2011), and Sarah Jane Evans (resigned 5 March 2010).

When examining the company's register of people with significant control (PSCs), Companies House details its immediate control chain. Historically, control was held by individuals. Mr Scott John Sartin held 50% to 75% of shares and voting rights from 6 April 2016 until ceasing on 2 April 2026. Prior to that, Antony Cotton and Judith Cotton each held 25% to 50% shareholding bands until their control ceased on 24 February 2022.

Effective 2 April 2026, individual PSC control was superseded by a corporate holding entity. Rex Bidco Limited (17072961) was notified as holding:

Ownership of shares: 75% to 100%
Voting rights: 75% to 100%
Right to appoint and remove directors

While this reveals who controls Charlton Baker Limited, it tells an investigator nothing about what Charlton Baker Limited owns. Anyone attempting to map the trading group using standard search bars reaches a dead end here.

What the reverse PSC search reveals: the downstream group

Under Part 21A of the Companies Act 2006, every UK company must record any corporate body that exercises significant influence or holds more than 25% of its shares or voting rights. Corp Intel aggregates the entire UK PSC register and runs this logic in reverse. Instead of asking who controls an entity, the search queries every company across England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland that records Charlton Baker Limited as a corporate PSC.

This reverse mapping uncovers a downstream group of 16 subsidiaries. The table below outlines each entity, its statutory registration status, the recorded control band, and downstream subsidiary counts.

| :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |

Analysing the downstream tier

All 16 downstream entities operate on the direct subsidiary tier (own subsidiary count is zero across the board). This indicates a flat regional operating structure rather than a multi-layered holding pyramid. Several structural findings emerge for transactional and compliance teams:

1. Regional Practice Integration: Entities such as Charlton Baker (Bath) Limited, Charlton Baker (Trowbridge) Limited, Charlton Baker (Melksham) Limited, Charlton Baker (Wantage) Limited, and Charlton Baker (Bristol) Limited reflect geographic hubs. Alongside these, acquired practices operating under their historic corporate names (such as Hixsons Limited, Opus Accounting Limited, Wilkinson & Partners Limited, Tyler Redmore Limited, and Donald Schofield (Pontefract) Limited) are held under full 75% to 100% control.

2. Specialist Vehicles: Innov8 R&D Ltd (11310046) demonstrates diversification into specialised research and development tax credit consultancy, while Charlton Baker (Audit) Limited (17024459), incorporated on 10 February 2026, sits in a 25% to 50% ownership band, reflecting statutory audit independence requirements.

3. Compliance Risks and Dissolution: Charlton Baker (Media and Entertainment) Limited (05828863) is subject to an active "proposal to strike off". When assessing group assets or parent guarantees, an entity facing compulsory strike-off warrants immediate scrutiny. Two additional entities (09105942 and 05722731) return numbers where the company name is not displayed on the current public register index, pointing to dissolved or historically altered entities still linked via un-relinquished corporate PSC filings.

Who sits at the top: upstream chain to the UBO

The upstream path of Charlton Baker Limited leads directly into an institutional holding vehicle model. The entity controlling the root company is Rex Bidco Limited (17072961), which holds 75% to 100% of the voting rights and capital.

Upstream corporate records show that Rex Bidco Limited is itself controlled by Rex Midco Limited:

Top Tier: Rex Midco Limited (Corporate PSC)
Intermediary Tier: Rex Bidco Limited (Company Number 17072961)
Operating Root: Charlton Baker Limited (Company Number 07179787)
Operating Tier: 16 regional and specialist practice subsidiaries

Rex Midco Limited holds 75% to 100% of the shares, 75% to 100% of the voting rights, and the right to appoint and remove directors of Rex Bidco Limited. This multi-layered Bidco and Midco architecture is typical of private equity buy-and-build strategies or institutional management buyouts. In such structures, operating debt, acquisition finance, or equity rollover instruments are often housed at the Midco or Bidco levels, while trading cash flows flow upwards from the operating subsidiaries through Charlton Baker Limited.

Why the structure matters for due diligence

Mapping a corporate group is essential for credit analysis, risk management, and legal onboarding. Evaluating Charlton Baker Limited purely at the root company level creates substantial blind spots across multiple professional disciplines.

[Rex Midco Limited]

(75% - 100%)

[Rex Bidco Limited] (17072961)

(75% - 100%)

[CHARLTON BAKER LIMITED] (07179787) [Root Operating Company]

+--> 13 Fully Owned Subsidiaries (75-100% control: Bath, Melksham, Opus, Hixsons, etc.)

+--> 3 Minority/Shared Control Entities (25-50%: Bristol, Audit, Media & Entertainment)

1. Contractual counterparty risk and trading liabilities

When entering into supplier contracts, lease agreements, or professional engagements, the counterparty entity dictates your recourse. In professional practice groups, trade accounts, intellectual property, and client engagements are frequently segregated. Engaging with Charlton Baker Limited does not automatically bind Hixsons Limited or Opus Accounting Limited unless express cross-guarantees are executed.

2. Ring-fencing audit and regulated activities

Charlton Baker (Audit) Limited sits in the 25% to 50% ownership bracket rather than 100%. Under UK auditing standards and professional body rules (such as the ICAEW), statutory audit firms must maintain ownership independence from non-audit commercial entities. Lenders and acquirers must recognise that cash flows and capital from an audit vehicle cannot be freely swept into standard group treasury operations without breaching regulatory governance.

3. Dissolution, insolvency, and striking-off contagion

With Charlton Baker (Media and Entertainment) Limited subject to a proposal to strike off, due diligence teams must verify whether there are unpaid liabilities, uncollected intercompany loans, or assets at risk of passing bona vacantia to the Crown. If a parent company holds an active subsidiary heading towards strike-off, it can trigger technical default clauses under institutional lending agreements.

4. Group banking and cross-company charges

Lenders assessing Charlton Baker Limited require a complete view of downstream assets to structure debentures and fixed or floating charges. A floating charge registered only against the root company will not encumber the assets, book debts, or bank balances of Tyler Redmore Limited or Donald Schofield (Pontefract) Limited unless those subsidiaries are party to an omnibus guarantee and debenture structure.

Corporate due diligence framework: investigating group structures

To conduct comprehensive due diligence on multi-entity advisory groups like Charlton Baker Limited, professional teams can follow this systematic framework:

1. Identify the Operating Root

Verify statutory details on the register (incorporation date, SIC codes, active officers).
Determine whether the target entity is a pure trading firm, an operating parent, or an intermediate shell.

2. Run an Upstream Control Trace

Extract all active and ceased individual and corporate PSC filings.
Map shareholding bands (25-50%, 50-75%, 75-100%) and special voting rights.
Traverse holding entities (Bidcos, Midcos, Topcos) until identifying the ultimate beneficial owners or institutional funds.

3. Execute a Downstream Reverse PSC Search

Query the complete UK corporate database to locate all companies that name the target entity as a corporate PSC.
Note all direct (tier 1) and indirect (tier 2+) subsidiaries.
Check for shared directorships across the identified subsidiaries.

4. Audit Subsidiary Entity Statuses

Verify the statutory status of each subsidiary: active, active with proposal to strike off, dormant, or in liquidation.
Flag any subsidiaries undergoing compulsory strike-off or liquidation to assess cross-default risks.
Reconcile group accounts against filed PSC records to capture recently acquired or newly incorporated entities.

5. Analyse Intercompany and Regulatory Ring-Fencing

Review regulatory filings for regulated activities (audit, legal services, insolvency practitioners).
Confirm whether bank debt is supported by cross-guarantees across the downstream subsidiaries.

Practical due diligence scenario: mid-market lender evaluation

Consider a commercial lending syndicate assessing a £10m debt facility to support expansion across regional accounting practices. The credit committee is asked to review Charlton Baker Limited as the primary borrower.

A surface-level review of Charlton Baker Limited reveals an active company incorporated in 2010 with multiple active directors. However, credit risk cannot be accurately priced from this record alone. Looking upstream, the credit team notes that Charlton Baker Limited is controlled by Rex Bidco Limited, which is owned by Rex Midco Limited. This signals that any senior debt taken at the operating parent level sits subordinate to or alongside debt covenants already established at the holding level.

Looking downstream, the reverse PSC search uncovers 16 subsidiaries. The lender discovers that valuable recurring fee revenue is earned not only in the parent company, but across regional practices such as Charlton Baker (Bath) Limited, Wilkinson & Partners Limited, and AJC Accountancy Limited. If the lender's legal counsel files security solely over Charlton Baker Limited, the underlying fee income of these 16 subsidiaries remains outside the charge perimeter.

Furthermore, the check flags that Charlton Baker (Media and Entertainment) Limited has an active proposal to strike off. By surfacing this early, the lender's risk team can require management to resolve the strike-off or formally wind down the entity prior to loan execution, preventing potential covenant breaches.

How the traditional search compares to Corp Intel

Corporate analysts traditionally piece together corporate trees by downloading filed group accounts, searching for notes on "interests in subsidiaries", and then manually querying each subsidiary one by one on Companies House. This manual method suffers from significant limitations:

Stale Information: Group accounts are filed up to nine or twelve months after the financial year-end. Acquisitions or incorporations that occurred within the current financial year (such as newly formed trading arms or recently acquired practices) do not appear in historic accounts.
Small Group Exemption: Small and medium-sized groups frequently file micro-entity or small company unaudited accounts, taking statutory exemptions that eliminate the requirement to disclose full subsidiary lists.
Dormant and Dissolving Entities: Filings regularly omit non-trading or winding-up entities, obscuring contingent liabilities.

Corp Intel continuously processes daily PSC updates from the central registrar. By reversing these relationships, Corp Intel maps corporate trees in real time, delivering a current, objective picture of both upstream owners and downstream subsidiaries.

For conveyancers, lawyers and lenders

Professional checks on corporate structures are essential during M&A share purchases, debt refinancings, and client onboarding under the Money Laundering Regulations 2017. Missing a downstream subsidiary or failing to identify an upstream Midco vehicle exposes lenders and buyers to unencumbered assets, hidden liabilities, and regulatory penalties. To verify complete corporate ownership trees and obtain a clear, dated reference for your transaction files, review our guide to [company group structures in the UK](/company-group-structure-uk) or order our corporate intelligence reports.

How to get this as a chart

You can order an up-to-date visual PDF mapping Charlton Baker Limited and its complete upstream and downstream group for £25 at [/corporate-org-chart](/corporate-org-chart). Sourced directly from the Register of Companies and the public PSC register, each report details shareholding tiers, active officers, subsidiary statuses, and corporate parentage in an executive-ready format.

FAQ

Can I find a company's subsidiaries directly on Companies House?

No. The Companies House public search interface is designed to query individual entities or search upwards to identify registered shareholders and PSCs. It does not provide a feature to search downward from a parent company to view all subsidiaries it controls. To view downstream subsidiaries, investigators must either examine historical notes in filed group accounts or utilise a reverse PSC database.

Who owns Charlton Baker Limited?

Charlton Baker Limited is directly owned and controlled by Rex Bidco Limited (company number 17072961), which holds between 75% and 100% of the shares and voting rights and possesses the right to appoint and remove directors. Rex Bidco Limited is itself controlled upstream by Rex Midco Limited, creating a multi-tiered corporate holding structure.

What is a reverse PSC search?

A reverse PSC search is an investigative technique that queries the central corporate database to identify every company that records a specific person or corporate entity as a person with significant control. This process identifies downstream subsidiaries that cannot be found by simply searching the parent company's public record.

Why does an accounting firm have multiple regional subsidiaries?

Accounting firms expanding through mergers and acquisitions often acquire existing regional practices and maintain them as separate limited companies. This isolates regional commercial risks, preserves existing client contracting structures, and maintains local goodwill while integrating back-office functions under a central parent company.

What does an active proposal to strike off mean for a subsidiary?

An active proposal to strike off indicates that the Registrar of Companies intends to dissolve the company and remove it from the official register, typically because statutory accounts or confirmation statements have not been filed, or because the directors have applied for voluntary dissolution. Until dissolved, the company remains active, but any assets held upon final dissolution transfer to the Crown as bona vacantia.

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