LORD Smith of Kelvin is to be reunited with former Weir Group chief executive Mark Selway after agreeing to take up the £300,000 a year chairman role at stock market listed engineering group IMI.

Weir, which has been headed by Keith Cochrane since Mr Selway's departure in 2009, has previously been linked to a possible bid for IMI by analysts.

The Glasgow engineering group also parted company with corporate broker Bank of America Merrill Lynch after finding out it had forged links with its rival.

The IMI move will also see Lord Smith give up the same post at SSE, where he receives a fee of £362,000, earlier than was previously expected.

He was expected to stay in the SSE job, where he has been since 2005, until January next year to allow a handover period for deputy chairman Richard Gillingwater.

The IMI announcement now means Lord Smith will step down as SSE chairman after its annual general meeting in July this year with Mr GIllingwater taking up the role from that date.

However SSE said that Lord Smith will be retained by its executive committee for another year to "provide advice and counsel on key business issues relating to Scotland".

He said: "The period of transition that began with Richard's appointment as deputy chairman at the start of the year is already going very well and bringing forward the handover to the AGM makes sense from everyone's point of view.

"Over the coming months we will continue to work together on the key operational, market and financial issues facing SSE. I am also delighted that I will continue to be connected with the company for a further year."

SSE said it plans to appoint a new non-executive director along with a senior independent director to its board over the next few months.

Lord Smith will take over as chairman of Birmingham based IMI from Roberto Quarta following the company's AGM in May.

Anita Frew, senior independent director at IMI, said: "Our search process identified a number of very strong potential candidates to take on the role of chairman.

"We agreed unanimously that Robert, who in addition to his high level board credentials, has extensive industrial, international and [merger and acquisition] experience, was the right person to succeed Roberto at this important time in IMI's evolution."

Lord Smith said: "The group's new strategic direction is now embedded in all the businesses and I am looking forward to working with the board and the executive team to ensure that we deliver IMI's ambitious accelerated growth plan."

Mr Selway, who became chief executive of IMI at the start of 2014, ran Weir Group between 2001 and 2009. Lord Smith became chairman in the summer of 2002 and served at the Glasgow engineering group until the end of 2013.

Lord Smith, one of Scotland's best known corporate figures, is also currently chairman of Forth Ports, the Green Investment Bank and a non-executive director at Standard Bank.

The chartered accountant is also the chairman of Clyde Gateway and filled the same post for the organising committee of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.

He also headed the Smith Commission overseeing the process of devolving more powers to Scotland.