JIM McColl's Clyde Blowers Capital intends to invest up to £50 million in Scottish engineering business Parsons Peebles Generation (PPG) after buying it for an undisclosed sum.
Rosyth-based PPG, which traces its roots to the 19th century, makes specialist power-generation components and motors mainly for the oil and gas industry. At its peak it employed more than 3000 people, but now has just 41 staff.
Selling party Patersons Quarries, based in Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire, said it was receiving a "substantial cash injection" from the deal and its subsidiary Gartsherrie Engineering is staying on as a supplier to PPG.
Mr McColl said he hopes to more than double employee numbers at PPG in a short period of time and expects to invest between £15 million and £50m over the next few years, depending on demand.
Already he is looking at establishing a servicing centre in Aberdeen and one in the Middle East, plus expanding the company's existing premises.
He said: "Parsons Peebles was a really big company in its heyday. The company has grown smaller and smaller and ceased working on what it was good at because it didn't do the development work
"We see this as a great opportunity to buy into a company with a fantastic history which has the potential to grow into a significant business again.
"We are really pleased we have been able to get one like this in Scotland as there are not many of them left."
Mr McColl indicated PPG will be hiring large numbers of engineers to help update its product base.
He is also considering further acquisitions in the United States on the back of the number of PPG products installed in nuclear plants in that country.
He said: "We will have to invest in engineers to develop the products. The heritage products need to be updated and developed to be competitive in the modern market.
"We will be looking to build the number of people [at Rosyth] and expand on the site. I would suspect we would be more than doubling the 41 in a short period of time. We would like to invest in growing the global infrastructure and make some acquisitions as well.
"As it has a bit in the oil industry we will look to open a service facility in Aberdeen and the Middle East as well. Hopefully that will grow demand from the factory in Rosyth."
Mr McColl also highlighted the opportunities PPG has in the renewable energy sector.
He said: "Theoretically it could make the generators for wind turbines and could certainly service them. [PPG has] also done some big hydro projects in the past.
"We are very focused on investing in [PPG]. I could see us investing between £15m and £50m in this over the next few years."
Mr McColl also revealed he hopes to seal a deal for another oil and gas services business in the next few weeks.
He said: "We hope to complete [that soon]."
Mr McColl confirmed he has not bought any shares in Rangers since its stock market listing even though he was part of a consortium which tried to buy the club.
Willie Paterson, chairman of Patersons Quarries, said: "We are delighted to announce the sale of Parsons Peebles Generation to Clyde Blowers Capital, who can truly take the business back on to the global stage."
Clyde Blowers Capital was advised by Dundas & Wilson, Deloitte and Calash. Patersons Quarries was advised by Pinsent Masons and KPMG.
Companies owned by Clyde Blowers Capital
David Brown Gear Systems:makes industrial gear and drive systems
David Brown Hydraulics: makes hydraulic products for marine, construction and transport sectors
Clyde Bergemann Power Group: provides spare parts and consultancy to the power and environmental engineering markets
InterBulk Group: logistics firm specialising in the transport of liquid and dry bulk materials
Moventas: wind turbine gear manufacturer
Parsons Peebles Generation: makes power generation components and motors
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article