THE American corporation that bought Clyde Union Pumps for £750 million has signalled the possibility of job cuts by admitting it is looking at "potential restructuring actions".

The news came after SPX announced the Scots engineering company had operating losses of $8.6m (£5.3m), including $6.6m of one-off accounting charges, in the first three months of 2012 even though sales had grown by 24% to $125m.

SPX said $70m of working capital had been put into Clyde Union to help improve its supply chain.

Around $40m of that was funded by Jim McColl's Clyde Blowers Capital as part of the sale agreement which was finalised in December last year.

During a call with investors Jeremy Smeltser, SPX's vice president and chief financial officer of its flow technology division, said: "As planned we took steps in Q1 to streamline the management structure in a way that provides clear direction and accountability.

"We are also in the process of evaluating potential restructuring actions which would benefit 2012 and beyond."

Clyde Union, which employs almost 900 people in Glasgow, is still on course for an increase in annual sales of more than 30% to $600m.

Christopher J. Kearney, chief executive of SPX, said: "We took aggressive actions to address the operational execution challenges Clyde Union faced prior to our acquisition of the business.

"Q1 Sales were below our expectations, however, we expect significant improvements in the rest of the year."

A spokeswoman for SPX said: "Restructuring can mean a number of things, such as improving facilities for better performance, evaluating the workforce or making further investments. We have already implemented many improvement initiatives and will continue to do so."

Clyde Blowers Capital bought Weir Pumps from Weir Group in 2007 for £48m.