Spanish police are hunting the former business partner of a British expatriate who was found battered to death in his luxury apartment in Barcelona.

Derek Cowan, 46, was discovered lying in a pool of blood in his penthouse in the Catalan city earlier this month.

The Catalan regional police (Mossos d'Esquadra) are reportedly anxious to interview a former associate, who was due to meet Mr Cowan on October 8, the day he died.

Mr Cowan, who described himself as a currency trader, was originally from Lanarkshire, Scotland, but had lived in Spain for the past seven years.

After a chance meeting in the city, Mr Cowan had agreed to meet up again with his former business partner. But the next day, Mr Cowan's current business partner, Andreas Langweider, became worried when he failed to return his calls.

He arrived at Mr Cowan’s flat in the fashionable Eixample district to find him dead, with blood streaming from his head.

No witnesses have emerged to say if the meeting with between Mr Cowan and his former business partner went ahead.

A police source said: "Andreas gave a full account of Derek's movements on the day of his death.

"He claims that Derek met him and said he'd bumped into (this man) out of the blue. He said he had a great new business idea and he wanted Derek on board.

"Andreas and Derek were a bit surprised about that but Derek agreed to see him nonetheless.”

The source added: "They had arranged to meet at 11.30am on the day Derek died. Andreas said that he had spoken to Derek near his flat after 11am and said he'd speak to him again after the meeting.

"He tried to phone Derek but couldn't get hold of him and still hadn't spoken to him by 2pm, which he thought was very strange.

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