Mr Wilson is exploring a management buyout of Edinburgh-based Premier Hytemp, cited recently by Scottish Enterprise as a flagship for international growth.

The speciality steels business focused on the oil and gas industry hiked turnover by one-third to £52 million last year, and employs 165 with outposts in Sheffield, Singapore and Houston. It made a pre-tax loss of £1.6m last year.

Sir David told The Herald in April he was poised to announce a sale of his general steels business, which accounted for £100m of the £340m MIH turnover last year, and said the metals division would now focus on plate and speciality steels. He insisted, however, that there was "no pressure" from Lloyds for any disposals.

In March, Graeme Hill, managing director of the metals division, and Donald Wilson, managing director of the oil and gas division, resigned from the MIH board to "fully devote their time and attention to their respective divisions", according to the annual accounts. This followed immediately on the last intervention by Lloyds, when the bank injected £118m in non-voting equity to reduce the debt mountain.

Sir David, 60, yesterday rejected suggestions of a wider sell-off of his empire, which at the year-end was still owing £470m to Lloyds Banking Group, even after a £268m capital injection by the bank since 2010.

The former Rangers owner said the sale of general steels was "still in process".

On Edinburgh talk that Mr Wilson was interested in a buyout, he said: "I think he may be interested in buying Premier Hytemp but it is at a very early stage." Premier was a "far smaller" business than general steels, he added.

Mr Wilson, 49, is an accountant who has worked for Sir David since the 1990s and is the former chief executive of MIH. He was a director of Rangers between 2000 and October 2009.

The disposal of Rangers last year prompted a £59m write-off in the MIH accounts.

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