Giltech remains under the control of its founder, Dr Tom Gilchrist, and his family, who currently own 62% of the equity. A further 5% is owned by certain directors of the company.

External investors include Barwell plc and the Scottish Co-Investment Fund who together have acquired a 9.5% stake in the business since first investing in 2005. More recently a 12% stake in the Company was acquired by Dr J M Stacey and his associates.

Barwell plc

Barwell plc is a privately funded venture capital firm based in Glasgow, operating as a hands-on investment company with a preference to be closely involved with company activities to provide practical financial support.

Scottish Co-Investment Fund

The Scottish Co-investment Fund (SCF) is a £72 million equity investment Fund established by Scottish Enterprise, partly funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), to invest from £100,000 to £1 million in company finance deals of up to £2 million.

Unlike a standard venture capital (VC) fund or a business angel, the SCF does not find and negotiate investment deals on its own; instead it forms contractual partnerships with active VC fund managers, business angels and business angel syndicates from the private sector (the SCF partner).

The SCF partner finds the opportunity, negotiates the terms of the deal and offers to invest its own equity cash. If the opportunity needs more money than the partner can provide, it can call on the SCF to co-invest alongside on equal terms. The SCF partner determines how much the SCF can invest in any new deal; however, the SCF cannot invest more than the SCF partner.

Dr J M Stacey

Dr J M Stacey founded and developed oil and gas engineering consultants, Granherne, before selling the company to a major US corporation. He was also a main board director and executive of Petrofac prior to its successful IPO.