Weir’s not finished with its plans for expansion

The Scottish engineer whose ambitions to merge with one Finnish rival were thwarted has been casting its eye over another.

Weir Group, which tried and failed to tie up with Metso, has since been weighing whether to bid for Outotec, another Helsinki-listed company in much the same market of producing industrial pumps for the mining industry.

Valued at nearly €1.4 billion, Outotec is about one third the size of Metso, but would still be a chunky acquisition for the Glasgow-based Weir, itself valued at a touch less than £5.9 billion.

However, Outotec also has an industrial water treatment business, which accounts for about 15 per cent of the group, but which is unlikely to interest Weir, having exited that market about five years ago.