A change in ownership at Aberdeen energy service company RBG has still to be agreed.
The Press and Journal said in November the firm was the target of a takeover deal which could net its chairman tens of millions of pounds.
Investor Montagu Private Equity was understood to be looking to buy the whole business, including a 50% stake controlled by venture-capital company 3i, in a transaction with a headline value of £200million.
The other 50% of the business is owned by marine logistics firm Ashley Group, whose majority shareholder is RBG chairman John Ray.
No deal has been agreed yet with Montagu. Montagu had a period of exclusivity to conclude a takeover, but that time has now ended.
An RBG spokeswoman said yesterday: “RBG can confirm that discussions with various parties regarding the future funding of the business are ongoing.
“As these discussions are at a delicate stage, we are unable to release further comment at this time. We will, however, be in a position to provide a clear, and more detailed, statement at the beginning of February.”
Mr Ray, 62, who lives at Nuffield, Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, founded one of the three firms that merged to create RBG in 2004.
Rigblast Group was set up by Mr Ray in 1975 and joined forces with MacGregor Energy and Mach-Ten Offshore in the new venture, which has been owned jointly by Ashley Group and 3i from the start.
RBG and its 5,000 employees worldwide provide fabric maintenance and construction support to the global energy industry.
The company’s bases and offices are located in principal areas of energy exploration and production activity, including Azerbaijan, Dubai, Kazakhstan, Qatar, Trinidad, the UK and America.