SCOTLAND on SUNDAY - Jeremy WATSON - 30-Sep-07 - DIVORCE

SCOTLAND on SUNDAY - Jeremy WATSON - 30-Sep-07 - DIVORCE

Publicity-shy Grossart prepares to fight for his millions in the divorce court!

By JEREMY WATSON

A MULTI-MILLIONAIRE Scottish businessman and member of one of the country's most prominent banking dynasties is to split from his wife after 11 years of marriage.
Elaine Grossart - formerly Simpson - will this week move to end her marriage to husband Hamish at a divorce hearing, which starts at the Court of Session in Edinburgh on Tuesday.

Elaine Grossart is suing her husband for divorce on grounds of "unreasonable behaviour."

She is seeking a lump sum of £3.5m and a monthly allowance of £6,000.

The Court of Session will hear a series of allegations about the state of the marriage, which are disputed by both parties. The case is scheduled to last six days.

The couple married in 1996 after the failure of Hamish Grossart's first marriage and the family home is a country estate near Cupar, Fife.

Hamish MacLeod Grossart is the nephew of Sir Angus Grossart, who founded the Noble Grossart merchant bank and is one of Scotland's most influential business figures.

A banker by trade, 50-year-old Grossart is a successful and wealthy businessman in his own right. At stake during the divorce proceedings will be his substantial financial assets.

Earlier this year, Grossart, the chairman of Indigo-Vision, a developer of CCTV and alarm systems, was reported to have banked more than £1m by selling about a third of his holding. He also has a substantial six-figure salary as deputy chairman of Cairn Energy, the fast-rising Scottish oil exploration company headed by entrepreneur Sir Bill Gammell. Shares in Cairn - Grossart has a substantial holding - have soared in value after a series of oil finds in India took the company into the FTSE 100. In 2005, he cashed in, selling 50,000 shares for £875,000.

The publicity-shy Grossart started out in business life with his uncle's bank but in his mid-twenties branched out on his own. He has latterly earned a reputation as a successful company "doctor," turning around the fortunes of ailing firms.

He has had a string of other directorships over the past 20 years including a position as deputy chairman of Clydebank media group Scottish Radio Holdings, chairman of fine china maker Royal Doulton, chairman of software company McLaren and board memberships of Martin Currie Income & Growth Trust and Artemis Investment Management and Sigma Technology, the investment fund.

According to Companies House documents, he currently has six active directorships.

The couple were married at Abercorn Church, near South Queensferry, in December, 1996. The family home, which Elaine Grossart, also 50, left last year following the marital breakdown, is valued at more than £2.3m.

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Hamish McLeod GROSSART52 born 07-Apr-1957

SPECulative Society of Edinburgh Member

IndigoVision
Non-Executive Chairman joined the board as chairman in 1996.Cairn Energy PLC
currently also non-executive deputy chairmanCairn India Limited
a non-executive director Member and Chairman of the Audit, Remuneration, Nomination & Corporate Governance Committees

British Polythene Industries PLC
Deputy Chairman
Artemis Investment Management Limited
a non-executive directorScottish Radio Holdings
Royal Doulton

He has over 20 years' experience on public company boards, in a wide range of industries,

both in an executive and non-executive capacity, frequently with catastrophic consequences.

He has left:
a long trail of broken lives, betrayed staff, colleagues and women,

who have suffered from his emotional inadequacies and lack of maturity.

A weak and bullying individual, who brings shame and unhappiness to his children,

and those who misguidedly cared for him, as he sets out to prove his worth to himself.

Always acting egocentrically at the expense of those he can bully, exploit and control.
An emotional Narcissist & a manipulative sociopath.