Alfie Cheyne takes back control of ACE Winches

Sources within ACE Winches have confirmed that Aberdeen businessman Alfie Cheyne and Alistair Scott have returned to the company today as CEO and CFO respectively, after sourcing financial backing.

It was revealed in February 2020 that Alfie Cheyne had taken Balmoral Group to court following the way in which the £15m credit and backing was provided in order to buy the stake in the business.

Alfie Cheyne launched Alfred Cheyne Engineering in 1992, and then rebranded the company as Ace Winches in 2006.

In 2017, Balmoral received a minority stake in ACE in exchange for an initial investment, before making a fresh cash injection and becoming majority shareholder in late 2019.

Balmoral announced major changes to ACE’s board in January 2020 following a strategic review.

The chief executive position was previously filled by former chief operating officer, George Fisher, and the husband and wife team were moved to non-executive roles.

Owner of Balmoral Group, Jimmy Milne, had previously told the Cheynes he wanted to buy their 30% shareholding in June 2020.

But the Cheynes’ wished to regain control of the company by exercising an option to buy Balmoral’s shares and they raised a petition with the court and Lord Tyre granted a number of interim interdicts in July of that year.

Our sources confirm that a deal has now been agreed that has seen the old ACE team back at the helm effective immediately and three members of teh previous board have already been removed.

Read the latest issue of the OGV Energy magazine HERE.