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Registered number:
FOR THE PERIOD ENDED 29 MARCH 2026
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COMPANY INFORMATION
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CONTENTS
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STRATEGIC REPORT
FOR THE PERIOD ENDED 29 MARCH 2026
The directors present their Strategic Report for the period ended 29 March 2026.
The company’s principal activity, the operation of the West End production of Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap and the management and exploitation of the related rights, maintained a strong performance again, with a 4% increase in turnover compared to the prior period.
Risks and uncertainties facing the company consist of the impact of inflation, higher interest rates and ongoing geopolitical tensions on the public within the UK. As a form of entertainment, expenditure on theatre has the potential to be reduced as the continued increase in the cost of living creates an atmosphere of uncertainty for the general public.
While there is a degree of transaction risk arising as a result of the changing of hands of the business, the new owners fully intend to protect the future of The Mousetrap, the world’s longest running play, and to ensure that it retains its position as a destination show.
Management drives business performance through setting clearly defined budgets which derive key performance indicators, taking appropriate action where required to enhance the financial results of the business. The company considers its critical key performance indicator to be revenue, which was £12,231,151 in the period (2025 - £11,923,205) and profit-before-tax, which was £4,072,554 in the period (2025 - £4,245,533).
Other key performance indicators that the director monitors include:
∙Show attendance and advance bookings figures
∙Operating margins
∙Overhead expenditure
∙Spend per head of customers attending the performance.
This report was approved by the board on 29 September 2026 and signed on its behalf.
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DIRECTOR'S REPORT
FOR THE PERIOD ENDED 29 MARCH 2026
The director presents his report and the financial statements for the period ended 29 March 2026.
The director who served during the period was:
The director is responsible for preparing the Strategic Report, the Director's Report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and regulations.
In preparing these financial statements, the director is required to:
∙select suitable accounting policies for the Company's financial statements and then apply them consistently;
∙make judgments and accounting estimates that are reasonable and prudent;
∙state whether applicable UK Accounting Standards have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements;
∙prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the Company will continue in business.
The director is responsible for keeping adequate accounting records that are sufficient to show and explain the Company's transactions and disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the Company and to enable him to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006. He is also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the Company and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.
The profit for the period, after taxation, amounted to £3,824,239 (2025 - £3,678,770).
Ordinary dividends were paid amounting to £Nil (2025 - £1,828,732). The director does not recommend payment of a further dividend.
The company will continue with its current operations. The directors don't anticipate any significant changes to the business over the next financial year.
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DIRECTOR'S REPORT (CONTINUED)
FOR THE PERIOD ENDED 29 MARCH 2026
There have been no significant events affecting the Company since the period end.
Under section 487(2) of the Companies Act 2006, Sopher + Co LLP will be deemed to have been reappointed as auditors 28 days after these financial statements were sent to members or 28 days after the latest date prescribed for filing the accounts with the registrar, whichever is earlier.
This report was approved by the board on
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INDEPENDENT AUDITORS' REPORT TO THE MEMBERS OF MOUSETRAP PRODUCTIONS LIMITED
We have audited the financial statements of Mousetrap Productions Limited (the 'Company') for the period ended 29 March 2026, which comprise the Statement of Comprehensive Income, the Statement of Financial Position, the Statement of Changes in Equity and the related notes, including a summary of significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including Financial Reporting Standard 102 ‘The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland' (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).
In our opinion the financial statements:
∙give a true and fair view of the state of the Company's affairs as at 29 March 2026 and of its profit for the period then ended;
∙have been properly prepared in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice; and
∙have been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006.
We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) (ISAs (UK)) and applicable law. Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the Auditors' responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements section of our report. We are independent of the Company in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in the United Kingdom, including the Financial Reporting Council's Ethical Standard and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.
In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the director's use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate.
Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the Company's ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue.
Our responsibilities and the responsibilities of the director with respect to going concern are described in the relevant sections of this report.
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INDEPENDENT AUDITORS' REPORT TO THE MEMBERS OF MOUSETRAP PRODUCTIONS LIMITED (CONTINUED)
The director is responsible for the other information. The other information comprises the information included in the Annual Report, other than the financial statements and our Auditors' Report thereon. Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and, except to the extent otherwise explicitly stated in our report, we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon.
In connection with our audit of the financial statements, our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the audit or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether there is a material misstatement in the financial statements or a material misstatement of the other information. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact.
We have nothing to report in this regard.
In our opinion, based on the work undertaken in the course of the audit:
∙the information given in the Strategic Report and the Director's Report for the financial period for which the financial statements are prepared is consistent with the financial statements; and
∙the Strategic Report and the Director's Report have been prepared in accordance with applicable legal requirements.
In the light of the knowledge and understanding of the Company and its environment obtained in the course of the audit, we have not identified material misstatements in the Strategic Report or the Director's Report.
We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters in relation to which the Companies Act 2006 requires us to report to you if, in our opinion:
∙adequate accounting records have not been kept, or returns adequate for our audit have not been received from branches not visited by us; or
∙the financial statements are not in agreement with the accounting records and returns; or
∙certain disclosures of director's remuneration specified by law are not made; or
∙we have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit.
As explained more fully in the Director's Responsibilities Statement set out on page 4, the director is responsible for the preparation of the financial statements and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view, and for such internal control as the director determines is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.
In preparing the financial statements, the director is responsible for assessing the Company's ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the director either intends to liquidate the Company or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.
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INDEPENDENT AUDITORS' REPORT TO THE MEMBERS OF MOUSETRAP PRODUCTIONS LIMITED (CONTINUED)
Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an Auditors' Report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance, but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements.
Irregularities, including fraud, are instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations. We design procedures in line with our responsibilities, outlined above, to detect material misstatements in respect of irregularities, including fraud. The extent to which our procedures are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud is detailed below:
Our approach to identifying and assessing the risks of material misstatement in respect of irregularities, including fraud and non-compliance with laws and regulations, was as follows:
∙the engagement partner ensured that the engagement team collectively had the appropriate competence, capabilities and skills to identify or recognise non-compliance with applicable laws and regulations;
∙we identified the laws and regulations applicable to the Company through discussions with directors and other management, and from our commercial knowledge and experience of the entertainment industry.
∙we focused on specific laws and regulations which we considered may have a direct material effect on the financial statements or the operations of the Company, including the Companies Act 2006, taxation legislation and data protection, anti-bribery, employment, environmental and health and safety legislation;
∙we assessed the extent of compliance with the laws and regulations identified above through making enquiries of management and inspecting legal correspondence; and
∙identified laws and regulations were communicated within the audit team regularly and the team remained alert to instances of non-compliance throughout the audit.
We assessed the susceptibility of the Company’s financial statements to material misstatement, including obtaining an understanding of how fraud might occur, by:
∙making enquiries of management as to where they considered there was susceptibility to fraud, their knowledge of actual, suspected and alleged fraud;
∙considering the internal controls in place to mitigate risks of fraud and non-compliance with laws and regulations; and
∙understanding the design of the Company’s remuneration policies.
To address the risk of fraud through management bias and override of controls, we:
∙performed analytical procedures to identify any unusual or unexpected relationships;
∙tested journal entries to identify unusual transactions;
∙assessed whether judgements and assumptions made in determining the accounting estimates were indicative of potential bias; and
∙investigated the rationale behind significant or unusual transactions.
In response to the risk of irregularities and non-compliance with laws and regulations, we designed procedures which included, but were not limited to:
∙agreeing financial statement disclosures to underlying supporting documentation;
∙enquiring of management as to actual and potential litigation and claims; and
∙reviewing correspondence with HMRC, relevant regulators and the Company’s legal advisors.
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INDEPENDENT AUDITORS' REPORT TO THE MEMBERS OF MOUSETRAP PRODUCTIONS LIMITED (CONTINUED)
There are inherent limitations in our audit procedures described above. The more removed that laws and regulations are from financial transactions, the less likely it is that we would become aware of non-compliance. Auditing standards also limit the audit procedures required to identify non-compliance with laws and regulations to enquiry of the directors and other management and the inspection of regulatory and legal correspondence, if any.
Material misstatements that arise due to fraud can be harder to detect than those that arise from error as they may involve deliberate concealment or collusion.
A further description of our responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements is located on the Financial Reporting Council's website at: www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our Auditors' Report.
This report is made solely to the Company's members, as a body, in accordance with Chapter 3 of Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the Company's members those matters we are required to state to them in an Auditors' Report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the Company and the Company's members, as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.
for and on behalf of
Chartered Accountants
Statutory Auditors
5 Elstree Gate
Elstree Way
Borehamwood
Hertfordshire
WD6 1JD
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STATEMENT OF COMPREHENSIVE INCOME
FOR THE PERIOD ENDED 29 MARCH 2026
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STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL POSITION
AS AT 29 MARCH 2026
The financial statements were approved and authorised for issue by the board and were signed on its behalf on
The notes on pages 13 to 23 form part of these financial statements.
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STATEMENT OF CHANGES IN EQUITY
FOR THE PERIOD ENDED 29 MARCH 2026
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NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
FOR THE PERIOD ENDED 29 MARCH 2026
Mousetrap Productions Limited is a private limited company registered in England and Wales. The registered address is First Floor, 62 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, W1D 6LT,
The principal activity of the company is the operation of the West End production of Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap and the management and exploitation of the related rights. The company's functional and presentational currency is £ sterling.
2.Accounting policies
The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention unless otherwise specified within these accounting policies and in accordance with Financial Reporting Standard 102, the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and the Republic of Ireland and the Companies Act 2006.
The preparation of financial statements in compliance with FRS 102 requires the use of certain critical accounting estimates. It also requires management to exercise judgment in applying the Company's accounting policies (see note 3).
The following principal accounting policies have been applied:
The Company has taken advantage of the following disclosure exemptions in preparing these financial statements, as permitted by the FRS 102 "The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland":
∙the requirements of Section 7 Statement of Cash Flows;
∙the requirements of Section 3 Financial Statement Presentation paragraph 3.17(d);
∙the requirements of Section 11 Financial Instruments paragraphs 11.42, 11.44 to 11.45, 11.47, 11.48(a)(iii), 11.48(a)(iv), 11.48(b) and 11.48(c);
∙the requirements of Section 12 Other Financial Instruments paragraphs 12.26 to 12.27, 12.29(a), 12.29(b) and 12.29A;
∙the requirements of Section 33 Related Party Disclosures paragraph 33.7.
This information is included in the consolidated financial statements of MT SPV Limited as at 29 March 2026 and these financial statements may be obtained from Companies House.
The accounting period end of the Company and the financial statements have been presented for the period 31 March 2025 to 29 March 2026 and the comparatives are presented for the period 1 April 2024 to 30 March 2025 on the basis that the principal activity of the company, the production of the dramatic-musical work 'The Mousetrap', is managed and reports on a weekly basis. The period end is the Sunday nearest to 31 March each year.
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NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
FOR THE PERIOD ENDED 29 MARCH 2026
2.Accounting policies (continued)
At the reporting date Mystery Holdings Limited, a fellow group undertaking, owed £14,089,600 to Barclays Bank Plc. The loan is secured by way of a fixed and floating charge over all entities in the group and is repayable by 28 June 2030. The group remains profitable and has positive net assets. Projections of the group show profitability is expected to continue and that the group will be able to meet its financial obligations including the Barclays Bank repayments as and when they fall due for at least twelve months from the date the accounts are approved. The accounts have therefore been prepared under the going concern basis.
Turnover from theatrical productions, including theatre tickets and merchandise, are recognised by reference to the performance date. Royalty income is recognised in the period it is receivable.
The Company contributes to a defined contribution plan for its employees. A defined contribution plan is a pension plan under which the Company pays fixed contributions into a separate entity. Once the contributions have been paid the Company has no further payment obligations.
The contributions are recognised as an expense in profit or loss when they fall due. Amounts not paid are shown in accruals as a liability in the Statement of Financial Position. The assets of the plan are held separately from the Company in independently administered funds.
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NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
FOR THE PERIOD ENDED 29 MARCH 2026
2.Accounting policies (continued)
The current income tax charge is calculated on the basis of tax rates and laws that have been enacted or substantively enacted by the reporting date in the countries where the Company operates and generates income. Deferred tax balances are recognised in respect of all timing differences that have originated but not reversed by the reporting date, except that:
∙The recognition of deferred tax assets is limited to the extent that it is probable that they will be recovered against the reversal of deferred tax liabilities or other future taxable profits; and
∙Any deferred tax balances are reversed if and when all conditions for retaining associated tax allowances have been met.
Deferred tax balances are not recognised in respect of permanent differences. Deferred tax is determined using tax rates and laws that have been enacted or substantively enacted by the reporting date.
At each reporting date the Company assesses whether there is any indication of impairment. If such indication exists, the recoverable amount of the asset is determined which is the higher of its fair value less costs to sell and its value in use. An impairment loss is recognised where the carrying amount exceeds the recoverable amount.
Depreciation is charged so as to allocate the cost of assets less their residual value over their estimated useful lives, on the following basis:
The assets' residual values, useful lives and depreciation methods are reviewed, and adjusted prospectively if appropriate, or if there is an indication of a significant change since the last reporting date.
Gains and losses on disposals are determined by comparing the proceeds with the carrying amount and are recognised in profit or loss.
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NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
FOR THE PERIOD ENDED 29 MARCH 2026
2.Accounting policies (continued)
At each reporting date, stocks are assessed for impairment. If stock is impaired, the carrying amount is reduced to its selling price less costs to complete and sell. The impairment loss is recognised immediately in profit or loss.
Basic financial instruments include trade and other debtors, trade and other creditors, cash and cash equivalents, and related party loans.
Trade and other debtors are recognised initially at the transaction price less attributable transaction costs. Trade and other creditors are recognised initially at transaction price plus attributable transaction costs. Subsequent to initial recognition they are measured at amortised cost using the effective interest method, less any impairment losses in the case of trade and other debtors. If the arrangement constitutes a financing transaction, for example if payment is deferred beyond normal business terms, then it is measured at the present value of future payments discounted at a market rate of interest. Cash and cash equivalents comprise cash balances and call deposits.
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NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
FOR THE PERIOD ENDED 29 MARCH 2026
The whole of the turnover is attributable to the company's principal activities.
Analysis of turnover by country of destination:
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NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
FOR THE PERIOD ENDED 29 MARCH 2026
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NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
FOR THE PERIOD ENDED 29 MARCH 2026
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NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
FOR THE PERIOD ENDED 29 MARCH 2026
10.Taxation (continued)
There were no factors that may affect future tax charges.
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NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
FOR THE PERIOD ENDED 29 MARCH 2026
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NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
FOR THE PERIOD ENDED 29 MARCH 2026
Profit and loss account
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NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
FOR THE PERIOD ENDED 29 MARCH 2026
The immediate parent undertaking is ASP MPL Limited, a company registered in England and Wales with registered office address First Floor, 62 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, W1D 6LT. The ultimate parent undertaking is MT SPV Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales with the same registered office address.
MT SPV Limited is the largest and smallest group which includes the company and for which group accounts are prepared. The consolidated accounts are available from Companies House.
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