McColl set to sell another business for millions

Scottish tycoon Jim McColl could be on the verge of another multi-million pound windfall after it emerged that he is considering the sale of another of his engineering businesses.

The Glaswegian entrepreneur, who sold Clyde Union Pumps in his home city last week for £750 million, is in early stage negotiations with a number of parties interested in acquiring Maag Automatik, a pumps business in Zurich which could raise £300m.

McColl confirmed there had been approaches from a number of companies about Maag and said: “We are not in a process as yet, but clearly it is something we are thinking about”.

He bought Maag Pump Systems, as part of the $1 billion acquisition of the fluid and power division of Textron in 2008, and last year completed a £125m merger of the company with Automatik Plastic Machinery, a German-based manufacturer of pelletiser equipment.

McColl acquired the former Weir Pumps business from the Weir Group and combined it with Union Pumps, which was also part of the Textron deal, to create Clyde Union. He sold the business to US-based SPX Corporation in a deal that sees him sever links with the company.

Should he sell Maag, it will leave him with two former divisions of the Textron businesses he acquired: David Brown Gear Systems based in Huddersfield and David Brown Hydraulics in Poole.