Scottish Enterprise, which has hailed its support for Scotland’s exporters and innovative companies, has written off £31.5 million invested in failed companies.
The agency is required to write-off losses greater than £300,000 that are no longer recoverable and in the 12 months to the end of March it took a hit on 11 businesses.
Of the total losses, just over half (£16.1m) resulted from the collapse of paper manufacturer Arjo Wiggins. Almost £3.3m was lost in MGB Biopharma, £3m in Osprey PIR and £2.7m in Sustainable Marine Energy.
The agency revealed it could be facing another big loss after being hit by the collapse of an unidentified company in the current financial year.
Its annual report notes that “in June 2025, a company in which Scottish Enterprise holds loan and equity investments valued at £20.2m notified Scottish Enterprise that a forecast material income stream expected later in 2025 is now at risk.
“This development may have implications for the company’s cash flow and, consequently, the valuation of Scottish Enterprise’s investment.
“The company’s management is actively exploring options to mitigate the potential cashflow impact and until these options are finalised, it is not possible to reliably quantify the potential effect on the valuation of the investment.”
The agency focused attention on its support for Scottish businesses reaching their highest-ever level of planned international sales – a record £2.46 billion which is a 20% increase on the previous year.
The agency said it had met all of its performance targets for 2024/25 – with three areas exceeding the target range.
It stated that more than 15,000 new and safeguarded jobs were created during the year – the second highest on record. It invested £442m in business innovation, alongside £1.16bn in business capital expenditure – also the second highest.
During the year, £43m was invested into 100 early stage companies, leveraging £111m of external investment.
The financial readiness team helped 299 companies to raise funding, with those supported raising £132m.
A total of 46 spin-out projects were supported during the year, via the HighGrowth Spinout Programme, resulting in three companies created during the period.
The final approved budget for 2024-25 was £294.2m.
Chief executive Adrian Gillespie said: “This year we have achieved another impactful set of results, driven by our sharpened focus around three core missions – Accelerating the Energy Transition, Boosting Capital Investment, and Scaling Innovation.
“The fact that we have achieved this historic exporting high, despite challenging global economic conditions throughout the financial year, really highlights the ambition of Scotland’s business base, and the determination of our organisation to transform Scotland’s economy.”
Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes said: “Supporting our businesses to thrive is not only vital to growing the economy, but to creating jobs and putting more money in people’s pockets.
“I congratulate Scottish Enterprise on these impressive results, particularly the record figure for forecast export sales, which demonstrates international demand for Scottish goods, products and services.
“We will continue to support Scottish businesses to grow internationally, despite ongoing uncertainties in global trade.”
The annual report shows that Mr Gillespie’t total remuneration rose from £221,000 to £229,000, while Jane Martin, managing director of innovation and investment, saw her package rise from £144,000 to £148,000.
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