ENTREPRENEUR Jim McColl has his eye on establishing several manufacturing sites for wind turbine gearboxes in Scotland after striking a deal to buy Finnish-headquartered Moventas Group, a big global player in this arena, for €100 million (£85.5m).

Mr McColl, one of Scotland’s richest men, revealed to The Herald that he was speaking to economic development agency Scottish Enterprise and the Scottish Government about his plans to invest in such manufacturing capability to support the offshore wind power drive.

He said: “We have looked at a few sites around Scotland. The obvious ones are Leith, Dundee and Methil, and I know there are a number of other manufacturers of turbines looking at these sites.

“We would also like to be working with a number of these turbine manufacturers. We could have several sites in Scotland.”

Although noting that German engineering giant and major windturbine player Siemens had its own “captive gear company”, Mr McColl highlighted potential for him to work with Gamesa of Spain and Doosan of South Korea.

He said: “We are probably the biggest independent supplier (of turbine gears).

“It would be more likely people like Gamesa, Doosan, people like that (we could work with).”

Moventas Group is being bought by Mr McColl’s Clyde Blowers group from the bankruptcy estate of Moventas Oy. The deal will add more than 1000 to the engineering entrepreneur’s workforce.

Asked if he was in talks with the Scottish Government and Scottish Enterprise about his plans to invest in manufacturing capability in Scotland, Mr McColl replied: “We are talking to them about a number of opportunities. There are currently some things on the boil with them. That is too early to disclose just now but (I will) probably be able to disclose it within the near future.”

Mr McColl highlighted the potential for Moventas’s technology in offshore wind development, while also noting its presence in the onshore marketplace.

He said: “I think we have got one of the leading companies in offshore wind, and we are buying this. It is really quite a strategic acquisition for us so we can, through them, move back into Scotland and develop the offshore wind sector.

“This company, I think, has probably got the best technology in the world ... for offshore wind turbines in the larger megawatt sites. Because of the weight of them, to assemble them you would have to do that at the local site that they are going out from. For the offshore stuff in the UK, if that was going out from Scotland, you would have to have some facility ... in Scotland as well.

“That is really our goal – to go in and be a major player in the offshore wind area. We are very positively disposed to supporting Scotland in the development of wind energy.”

Highlighting the potential for manufacturing and assembly work in Scotland, he said: “It would be a substantial amount of work you would have to do.”

Mr McColl, who owns 60% of East Kilbride-based Clyde Blowers, is excited by the potential of Moventas’s “fusion drive system” technology, which integrates the gearbox and generator into a single unit.

He emphasised that he had done the deal without any bank debt. He said he had put up more than 50% of the equity, with US-based Hillman and Morgan Stanley also putting up funding.

Mr McColl said: “What we thought was, if you were up against a deadline to make a purchase and in competition with other people, the banks are taking a long time now to make decisions.

“Also, if you are on a deadline, they are more likely to say, ‘We will do it but here is the price and it is high and you will have a big fee to pay’. I think it is better if we do it through equity and, at our leisure, we can look at the best deal for bank debt.”

In August, Mr McColl announced the sale of his ClydeUnion Pumps business to US giant SPX for £750m.

This included the former Weir Pumps business at Cathcart, on the south side of Glasgow, which Mr McColl bought in a deal in 2007. This deal averted the threat of the end of large-scale manufacturing at Cathcart, where Mr McColl worked as an apprentice.

Mr McColl has, since 2007, built the workforce at Cathcart from 535 to 891.

Clyde Blowers employs about 5500 people worldwide. Mr McColl noted this would rise towards 6000, with the number of employees coming on board from Moventas more than offsetting the number of staff moving to SPX.

He put the annual turnover of the Clyde Blowers businesses at more than £1.3 billion.

Under its new ownership, ClydeUnion will continue to be run as a standalone business with a head office in Glasgow, under the same management team.

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