Clyde Blowers, the East Kilbride-based group owned by Scottish entrepreneur Jim McColl, today announced the acquisition of an entire business unit from American Fortune 500 company Textron.

The deal, with a total value of $1 billion, involves the purchase by McColl of four separate businesses from Textron, one of the world's largest and most successful multi-industry companies.

These comprise the American giant's entire Fluid and Power division. The companies are Maag Pumps systems - based in Oberglatt, Switzerland, David Brown Gear Systems based in Huddersfield, England David Brown Hydraulics based in Poole, England and Union Pumps based in Battle Creek, Michigan, US.

The deal, which McColl says "took a bit of time" to put together, was partly funded by a club of four major banks - Bank of Scotland, Barclays, HSBC and RBS.

In addition, equity was provided by Clyde Blowers Capital Fund ll LP, a private equity fund established by Clyde Blowers to provide finance for this deal and for future acquisitions.

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SCF Partners, the Houston based private equity investors, also provided equity for the deal.

The co-lead investors in the Fund are Boston-based HarbourVest Partners and UK based Pantheon Ventures, alongside Bank of Scotland and Swiss based LGT Capital Partners.

Clyde Blowers were assisted in the raising of the Fund by JP Morgan Cazenove.

Jim McColl said: "I am absolutely delighted to sign a deal of this magnitude, especially in the current economic climate.

"We are talking a total value of $1 billion, including additional working capital, bonding facilities, the integration with Union Pumps of the Weir Pumps business - which was bought by Clyde last year - and payment of up to $645m to Textron. It is a very substantial deal for a British company.

"I believe it is a great boost for British business. At a time when the news is all about foreign businesses coming to the UK and buying our biggest companies, here is a story of a British company having the clout to buy an entire division from a global company ranked 202nd in the American Fortune 500."

Three of the four companies being acquired - Maag Pumps, David Brown Gear Systems and David Brown Hydraulics - will be separate portfolio companies within the Clyde Blowers group, taking the number of such organisations to seven - each with its own management structure.

The others are Clyde Process Solutions, Clyde Bergemann Power Group, InterBulk Group and Clyde Pumps.

Union Pumps will integrate with Clyde Pumps, the company formed by Jim McColl following the highly-publicised purchase in May 2007 from Weir Group of iconic Glasgow company Weir Pumps - where McColl (55) started his working life as a 16-year-old apprentice engineer. The purchase saved 600 jobs, as Weir Group had planned the sale of Weir Pumps to Swiss company Sulzer, whose intention was to close the Glasgow plant.

(GK/JM)