Freescale Semiconductor management told 1,250 workers at its East Kilbride site last Friday that the company is looking for a buyer for the fab, according to reports.

Scottish MSPs Andy Kerr, and Adam Ingram are looking for an ‘urgent’ meeting with Freescale management, according to the Glasgow Herald.

Freescale was bought by a consortium of private equity funds last year, led by Blackstone, in a deal which valued (many said over-valued) the company at $17.6bn.

Subsequently Freescale was loaded up with nearly $6bn worth of debt in the form of ‘toggle bonds’ which are ‘covenant-lite’ junk bonds, which involved Freescale in large interest payments.

It was assumed, at the time, that Freescale would try to maximise cash-flow to meet these interest payments by cutting back on its own manufacturing and putting its wafers out to foundry.

Earlier this year, Freescale abandoned its third share in the pan-European Crolles 2 partnership developing basic process R&D for chip manufacturing and said it would, instead, get its process from an IBM-led consortium. That led to the collapse of Crolles2.

Earlier this year, Freescale was offered a £3m regional development grant aimed at safeguarding jobs at the East Kilbride site which has been making chips for 38 years.

Of the 1,200 jobs at the site 900 are in manufacturing and 300 in development.

Freescale CEO, Michel Mayer, received $20m when Freescale was bought by the Blackstone consortium, under an agreement which said that Mayer’s shares should vest immediately.