A Scottish company founded by Scotland rugby star Bill Gammell, which floated on the UK stock market nearly four decades ago, is this week at the centre of yet more takeover drama.

Unfortunately, from the perspective of those who would like to see as many publicly quoted Scottish companies as possible, this Edinburgh-based group still looks set to be taken over.

However, the bidder in pole position has changed in recent days.

The number of suitors to have focused in recent times on oil and gas company Capricorn Energy, previously known as Cairn Energy and founded by former Scotland rugby international winger Sir Bill Gammell, has been somewhat remarkable.

And, even before all this drama, the Edinburgh-based company’s story was a captivating one.

By the time I first spoke to Bill Gammell, in early 1995, there had already been many ups and downs in the Cairn Energy story.

At that point, Bangladesh was a key focus.

And the Cairn Energy founder, who worked on the oil rigs as a student and attended Fettes College in Edinburgh with at that stage soon-to-be prime minister Tony Blair, was clearly excited about the potential in Bangladesh as I interviewed him in the company’s then head office in Castle Street.

Cairn Energy had the previous year become the first Western company to sign a production-sharing contract in Bangladesh, relating to an area the size of 40 North Sea blocks.

The company enjoyed good times in Bangladesh, then a more difficult period in the country, before exiting.

Cairn Energy then enjoyed great success in India, specifically in Rajasthan. It spun off the Indian business, then sold a majority stake in this to mining giant Vedanta.

Next up was some frontier exploration in Greenland, which proved to be an expensive venture.

After that came a focus on the UK North Sea and Norway for a while.

Then it was on to the Western Desert of Egypt, with an acquisition of assets in 2021.

On December 13, 2021 came the name change to Capricorn Energy.

The business was........

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