Expro ‘in talks over £400m sale of manufacturing arm’

Expro International, the oil services company with European headquarters in Aberdeen, is reportedly in talks about selling its manufacturing operations to Siemens for more than £400 million.

Expro, which employs some 4,500 people in 50 countries, is owned by private equity group Arle Capital Partners.

The firm specialises in “well flow technology” and has about 500 staff in Scotland. It is said to be considering selling the manufacturing operations following a strategic review. Yesterday it refused to comment on the matter.

The firm recently unveiled Sir George Buckley as its new chairman. The US-based British businessman has led Fortune 100 technology company 3M, which makes household name products such as Post-it and Scotch tape, since 2005.

The report came as Japanese trading company Marubeni said it had teamed up with a government-sponsored private equity group to buy Norfolk-based Seajacks International for an undisclosed sum. Seajacks owns and operates a number of self-propelled jack-up vessels for the installation of offshore wind turbines.