By Alessandro Brunelli
MICHAEL Loggie, the director of Aberdeen-based Saltire Energy, has become the highest paid Scotsman in history.
It is believed that the salary of the 67-year-old entrepreneur now reaches £7.5 million, a sum which doubles that currently earned by any other fellow countryman.
Loggie’s earnings have risen significantly this year, up from a previous £5.0 million wage in 2010, while his firm also boasted an impressive record.
Saltire group’s turnover reached over £15.0 million, up by 26.34 percent from last year, while its pre-tax profits neared £200 million.
The company’s assets reached £47 million in 2011, with an impressive 21.19 percent increase on the previous year.
The oil tool rentals company, founded in 1986, prides itself through its website on supplying “an extensive range of state of the art drilling equipment to the Global Oil Industry”.
However, the size of the firm, which employs just above 30 workers at its Badentoy Park, Portleth, headquarts, is relatively small compared to that of international giants of the sector.
In an interview to The Press and Journal, Philip Beresford, who compiles the annual Sunday Times Rich List, claimed that Saltire’s success depends on its ability to service the oil industry, and added that Mr Loggie has been riding the oil boom very well.
Loggie’s performance is indeed outstanding among major Scottish businessmen, such as Stewart Milne of the Aberdeen-based Stewart Milne Group (£.1.3m), or Martin Gilbert, chief executive of Aberdeen Asset Management (£500.000).
Loggie’s varied background includes another experience in the oil industry, with services company Cansco, which he ran from 1986 to 2008.
A prominent figure of the tourism industry in the north east of Scotland since the 1970s, Mr Loggie is now also a director of the Mirner and Cults hotels in Aberdeen.
He used to co-own the Queen’s Hotel, which was eventually sold in 2006, and was involved in the management of the Seaton Arms, Palm Court Hotel and the Eight Acres at Elgin.
Loggie has earned a reputation in the Aberdeen area for being a reserved individual and a successful businessman.
However, Loggie’s wealth is not the biggest in Scotland.
It’s the Emirati businessman Mahdi Al Tajir who was Scotland’s richest man in the Sunday Time Rich List 2011, with a wealth of £1.5 billion.
Analysts have also recently claimed that Ian Suttie, another Aberdeen businessman involved in the oil industry, would soon become the richest Scot after it was revealed that his company, First Oil and Gas, owns a 30 percent stake in an oil reservoir lying east of the Shetland Isles.
