More than 50 parties have already expressed an interest in buying a fast-expanding Aberdeen oil field products firm which went into administration this week.
Joint administrator Bruce Cartwright, of PricewaterhouseCoopers, said yesterday he was delighted at the number of would-be buyers of Stable Holdings.
He added: “There has been significant interest from home and abroad, including from people in the trade.”
Mr Cartwright said the core Stable business was very good.
He has yet to set a closing date for bids, but expected to have a clearer idea in the next three or four weeks.
Nearly 40 people were made redundant on Monday when Stable went into administration.
The company is understood to have had a busy order book, but was unable to get additional lending from the Royal Bank of Scotland.
Stable employed 79 people in Aberdeen, before this was cut to 43 following Monday’s job losses.
PricewaterhouseCoopers said in a statement at that time that Stable had suffered from working-capital pressure.
Mr Cartwright said that, following a buyout in December 2006, the group had grown from an annual turnover of £7million to £22million.
Chief executive Rod Coffey, who had led Stable for four years, said on Monday: “We are all hoping that a buyer or an investor can be found quickly to save the undoubted potential of this company.”
The businessman had been a director at International Tubular Services in Aberdeen before acquiring a stake in Stable in 2005. The following year, he bought the company.