Global Energy Group said yesterday it was poised to double its turnover and workforce after a major investment by Japanese conglomerate Mitsui and Co.
The value of the deal, which sees Mitsui take a 25% stake in family-run Global, was not disclosed but it was speculated that the transaction could be worth about £25million.
One industry watcher said: “Global is a good business. The company has been pushing on and doing all sorts of stuff.”
Speaking during a visit to Japan as part of Scottish Government efforts to encourage inward investment, Finance Secretary John Swinney said the deal was further evidence of Scotland’s international standing and global leadership in offshore energy, both in oil and gas and renewables.
Roy MacGregor, Global’s chairman, said he was now targeting annual turnover of about £500million within three years for the Aberdeen and Inverness-based international energy industry service company he founded seven years ago.
Turnover in the year to the end of March 2012 came in at about £250million, he added. This is substantially up from the £170.3million in sales reported by Global, which employs about 4,500 people worldwide, for the previous 12 months.
Expansion opportunities created by Mitsui’s investment are expected to take Global’s workforce to 9,000.
Tokyo-based Mitsui is one of the world’s most diversified trading, investment and service companies, with a network of 154 offices in 67 countries and 15 business units involved in activities from shipping and aerospace to chemicals and steel.
It owned a 10% stake in the Macondo well at the heart of the Deepwater Horizon rig catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.
Its current energy interests include major projects in Russia – a holding in the Sakhalin II crude oil and natural gas development and production venture – and a stake in Mozambique’s biggest offshore gas field.
Global is looking to tap into these markets and others following the deal announced yesterday, which gives Mitsui two of the seats on an eight-strong board of directors.
The investment will also support developments at Nigg Energy Park, the mothballed Highland fabrication yard Global acquired late last year in a move expected to lead to the creation of more than 2,000 jobs in the coming years.
Mr MacGregor said: “This is a hugely important step for the Global Energy Group, which we are confident will help us to continue to develop and elevate our business to new levels.”
Noboru Katsu, Mitsui’s European senior vice-president, said: “Our investment will assist Global in their exciting expansion plans at home and internationally.
“We do not see this investment as purely Mitsui taking an equity share in the business, but rather we see ourselves as a partner to aid the industrial growth of Global at home in Scotland, in the UK and on an international basis.”
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