Sir Tom Hunter strengthens links to investment group Sigma Capital

Scottish entrepreneur Sir Tom Hunter strengthened his links to investment and property management outfit Sigma Capital with the appointment of his business partner James McMahon to the board yesterday.

McMahon, 62, was a founder partner of West Coast Capital (WCC) with Hunter in 2001.

He becomes an independent non-executive director at Edinburgh-based Sigma, in which WCC is the largest shareholder with a 20 per cent stake.

Hunter, who lost tens of millions on his property investments during the recession, is said to be preparing a 50 million joint venture with Sigma to scoop up distressed real estate assets from UK banks.

Announcing full-year results yesterday, Sigma said it was "working on a number of material property-related initiatives" with WCC.

It added: "We expect to bring some of these opportunities, as well as other projects we are working on ourselves, to fruition during 2011."

Sigma is hoping to put a "challenging year" behind it as it posted a 980,000 operating loss for 2010, from revenues of 1.84m, down from 2.41m the year before.

Exceptional items relating to the flotation of Frontier IP and a payment to Bank of Scotland relating to a property guarantee pushed Sigma's pre-tax losses to 3.60m, compared to a 890,000 profit in 2009.

But the firm said it returned to the black in the second half of last year, managing a "small profit" before exceptional items thanks to reduced overheads and an 11 per cent increase in revenues.

Chairman David Sigsworth said: "2010 was a challenging year but I am pleased to report that prospects for the group in 2011 have significantly improved, underpinned by the work we have done to re-focus our activities."

A spokesman for WCC said of Sigma: "We look forward to future growth."