Mulraney enters joint venture with driller

ALLOA Athletic chairman Mike Mulraney has created a joint venture with a Singa­porean drilling specialist that he predicts will bring in millions of pounds of business for his firm.

The entrepreneur’s Mulraney Group, which also has interests in commercial and residential property, has teamed up with Indodrill to help the firm expand into the European, Middle East and African (EMEA) regions.

The tie-up was forged after Indodrill’s Scots-born managing director, John Horne, asked Mulraney’s GeoSonic drilling division to offer its services to the Singapore-based group’s customers in south-east Asia and Australia.

Mulraney told Scotland on Sunday that the deal was “a bit of a coup” for his group, adding: “My understanding is that the turnover of the Indodrill group in the southern hemisphere over the last few years is towards nine figures. On that basis, they have extremely high hopes for what we can build up over the next 72 months in EMEA.”

The joint venture, to be called Indodrill EMEA, will be run from Alloa and headed by GeoSonic managing director David Dennis. The operation will sit alongside GeoSonic, which Mulraney bought last year from US drilling giant Boart Longyear.

About ten staff will be recruited for the operation, with more jobs set to be created as it picks up drilling contracts for diamonds, gold and other metals and minerals. GeoSonic employs about 50 people, while the Mulraney Group has about 450 staff.

Mulraney said: “We’re in discussions now over two separate sites in Africa, and that’s before the company’s even up and running.”