Bladnoch begins whisky production

LOWLAND distillery Bladnoch, which was acquired by Australian yoghurt tycoon David Prior, will start producing new spirit in time for its 200th anniversary.

Mr Prior has invested an estimated £25 million acquiring the distillery and its warehouses of stock. The business plan details a target of one million litres of whisky a year being produced.

Whisky veteran Ian McMillan is working as master distiller and has embarked on the first distillation, which will be available in three years.

He has also selected malt from 1988 for a 200th anniversary bottling, which will be available in October. AGGREKO has made a major move into the smart energy market with a £40 million deal to acquire Younicos, a supplier of batterybased energy storage solutions.

The temporary power specialist said the acquisition of Berlinheadquartered Younicos was in line with its ambition to deliver lower cost and cleaner energy to its customers.

It is the second deal to be completed by Aggreko in two months, following its acquisition of Indonesia-based power rental company KBT, as it bids to combat difficult trading conditions in Argentina.

The difficulties in the South American country, where Aggreko has been forced to renegotiate power contracts on less favourable terms, has offset a partial recovery in the US oil and gas market, and led the company to warn in April that profits this year would be lower than in 2016.

Chef executive Chris Weston subsequently faced calls from shareholders to resign over the company’s performance at its annual meeting in April, and was then forced to contend with the resignation of respected finance boss Carole Cran. Ms Cran is joining Edinburgh-based Forth Ports in a similar role.

Unveiling Aggreko’s latest acquisition, Mr Weston said the company’s move for Younicos comes at a period of significant change in the energy market, with increasing amounts of renewables being deployed into the market. In 2016 more than half of the generating capacity added to the global energy market came from the renewable sector at 161 gigawatts, he said, noting that the batterybased solutions designed by Younicos will allow energy providers to manage the challenge of intermittency which increases the more renewable energy is deployed.

Mr Weston said the deal has also come as batteries have become more competitive on cost. “The integration and control of

Aggreko sees potential for the Younicos battery technology within its industrial customer base.

generating capacity, be it fossil fuel or renewable, will be enabled by battery systems which will be required to ensure power stability and reliability are maintained,” Mr Weston said.

“Younicos has been developing this capability since it was founded in 2005, and had invested over $100 million in R&D, developing the product and application it now deploys.”

Mr Weston sees big potential in applying the battery storage solutions offered by Younicos, which can be used across a range of energy resources, to Aggreko’s industrial solutions customers on a rental basis.

He also expects to deploy the batteries in “microgrids” in remote locations or developed

markets, as well as in “grid balancing services”.

Mr Weston told analysts: “This acquisition strengthens Aggreko’s position in a market that has seen greater investment in renewables, and is in line with our strategy to invest in technology to reduce the cost of energy for our customers.”

Younicos, which has 140 staff across its sites in Berlin and Texas, has more than 200 megawatts of installed storage systems in the market. The business, which booked an operating loss of £15m as it earned £7m of revenue last year, was said to have a strong pipeline across both developed and emerging markets.

Mr Weston said he expects Younicos, which will initially be run as a standalone business, to be

loss-making this year, before becoming profitable in the second half of 2018. The company is forecast to report revenue of £25m and an operating loss of around £5m for the second half of 2017.

Mr Weston added: “We are excited by the capabilities brought by Younicos, which combined with our generating technology, deployment capability and global scale, will enable us to provide both our existing and future customer with a reliable, cheaper and cleaner source of energy.”

Younicos chief executive Stephen Prince, who will report directly to Mr Weston, said: “We are delighted to be joining with a market leading power provider in Aggreko.”

Aggreko shares closed down 8.5p at 912p. LEADING oil and gas firms have underlined their confidence in the exploration potential of the North Sea in spite of renewed signs the crude price plunge could drag on.

Norwegian giant Statoil said it was preparing to start an exciting drilling campaign in UK waters that could result in the company finding more oil by the giant Mariner discovery East of Shetland and developing at least one new field.

The company highlighted the scale of Mariner yesterday, noting that work on installing the production facilities for the field will support around 1,500 jobs ahead of first oil next year.

Statoil said the first of the three wells it will drill in coming weeks could prove additional resources and increase the extent of Mariner.

The field is estimated to contain 250 million barrels and is expected to be in production for 30 years.

The rig that will be used on Mariner will go on to drill wells on what Statoil described as the under-explored margins of the Viking Graben East of Shetland and in the outer Moray Firth.

Head of UK exploration Jenny Morris said: “This is an exciting campaign … We hope to make discoveries that can add value to existing projects and also provide the resources necessary for new develop-

ments on the United Kingdom Continental Shelf.”

Aberdeen-based Faroe Petroluem said a well to assess the Brasse discovery it made last year off Norway had flowed high quality crude at strong rates.

Chief executive Graham Stewart said the results underlined the potential of the Brasse area and validated Faroe’s decision to take the risk of carrying on potentially high risk exploration activity amid a period of low oil prices.

Brent crude has come under fresh pressure in recent weeks as traders worried about the effectiveness of efforts by Opec members to curb production. It sold for around $49.20 per barrel yesterday compared with $56/bbl in April.

Faroe has limited recent drilling to the Norwegian North Sea, in which more generous exploration tax breaks are on offer than in the UK. WALLETS Marts sold four store heifers in Castle Douglas yesterday to average 223.6p per kg, while 30 store bullocks levelled at 233p.

Messrs Craig Wilson Ltd sold 1,305 prime lambs at Ayr yesterday to a top of £114 per head and 247.5p per kg to average 210.7p (-15.8p on the week).

There were also 541 cast sheep forward when heavy ewes sold to £143.50 for Texels and averaged £87.92, while light ewes peaked at £65.50 for Blackfaces and levelled at £55.69.

Harrison & Hetherington Ltd sold 40 prime heifers in St Boswells yesterday to a top of 248p and an average of 226p (-6p), while 14 prime bullocks peaked at 231p and levelled at 218p (-10p).

In the rough ring 44 beef cows sold to 175p and averaged 143p (-10p).

There were also 1461 prime lambs forward