Purchase of the Ferguson Marine shipyard in Port Glasgow (Company): FOI release

Information requested

“How much the Scottish Government spent purchasing the Ferguson Marine shipyard in Port Glasgow (Company) in August 2019. This should include: All advice and legal service costs; Redundancy costs (If any); Payments to Board members, owner/s of company; any Company Debts outstanding at time of Purchase; And any other costs incurred in the purchase of this company.”

Response

We are responding on the basis that your query relates to the purchase of the business and certain assets of Ferguson Marine Engineering Limited (in Administration) by Ferguson Marine (Port Glasgow) Limited, a Company wholly owned by the Scottish Ministers, on 2 December 2019.

With this purchase in mind, we have included a breakdown of the costs incurred by the Scottish Government in completing this transaction within Annex A of this letter.

No employees were made redundant as a result of the acquisition of the business by Scottish Government and hence there were no redundancy costs incurred.

The Scottish Government made no payments to the owners of Ferguson Marine Engineering Limited (in Administration) or to its Board members as part of the transaction.

Ferguson Marine (Port Glasgow) Limited
Acquisition costs	Total	Note
Purchase of business and certain assets of FMEL	7,543,857	1
Land and Buildings Transaction Tax	244,925
Crown rent and registration	7,415
Professional advisors - Legal and Commercial	574,217	2
Total	8,370,414

1 - The purchase of the business and certain assets of Ferguson Marine Engineering Limited - in Administration ("FMEL") by Ferguson Marine (Port Glasgow) Limited ("FMPG"), a company wholly owned by the Scottish Ministers, in the sum of £7,543,857, was satisfied by being set-off against the sums owing by FMEL to the Scottish Ministers (resulting in part from loans provided by the Scottish Ministers to FMEL). As a result, the purchase of the business and certain assets was made at no additional cash cost to the Scottish Government. The assets purchased by FMPG included book debts totalling approximately £225,000.

2 - This cost covers the legal and commercial advice received by Scottish Government in respect of its involvement with FMEL and FMPG covering the period from August 2019 to February 2020. Whilst not all of the advice billed in this period directly related to the transaction, the majority did.

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