Ramco reveals £3.4m loss, plus funding drive

Published Date: 10 June 2009

RAMCO, the Aberdeen-based energy company, is seeking an investor to take a stake in its specialist wind farm business, SeaEnergy.

Despite raising £1.6 million to provide working capital for SeaEnergy in April, Ramco managing director Steve Bertram said yesterday that the company was seeking to raise a "moderate" further amount of funding.He said the amount raised would depend on whether it took on a purely financial investor or one with expertise to offer.SeaEnergy was formed after Ramco poached the team which built the giant Beatrice demonstrator turbines from North Sea oil and gas company Talisman, which deemed the project "non-core".It has been awarded stakes in two deep-water wind farm projects off the Scottish coast in joint ventures with Scottish & Southern Energy and RWE, and has applied for further sites set to be released from the Crown Estate later this year.Also yesterday, Ramco, which owns 80 per cent of SeaEnergy, reported a pre-tax loss of £3.4 million for 2008. Its other main interest – a large stake in Mesopotamia, a joint-venture company seeking Iraqi oil services contracts – has placed a tender for a 60-well contract from Missan Oil Company.Bertram would not give details of the size of the tender, but Houston-based Weatherford International recently won a 20-well contract in Iraq worth $224m (about £138m).