Harland & Wolff, the Belfast-based shipbuilder that produced the Titanic, has collapsed into administration.
The corporate has appointed directors from Teneo to supervise the method after failing to seek out new funding to remain afloat. To this point solely the mother or father firm, Harland & Wolff Group Holdings plc, is in administration, and its shipyard subsidiaries are persevering with to commerce.
An announcement on Friday by the corporate, which employs 66 employees at its holding agency, confirmed that jobs could be misplaced. It additionally confirmed that shareholders would lose their investments, a destiny in prospect since buying and selling in on London’s Intention junior market was suspended in July.
A press release from Harland & Wolff mentioned: “The directors will sadly be required to scale back the headcount upon appointment. Numerous workers will likely be retained to supply sure required providers to the operational corporations below a transitional providers settlement.
“Following right this moment’s appointment of directors, the corporate reconfirms its place that the strategic overview won’t lead to any returns to shareholders of Harland & Wolff Group Holdings plc.”
The group has been on the lookout for patrons for the businesses working its shipyards. Earlier this yr about 1,600 individuals have been working throughout its companies, which embody shipyards in Devon and Scotland in addition to Belfast.
The Belfast yards alone employed as many as 20,000 individuals of their heyday, whereas the yellow Samson and Goliath cranes put in within the Seventies nonetheless loom excessive on the town skyline. The yard most famously constructed the Titanic ocean liner, which sank on its maiden voyage in 1912.
The UK authorities had pledged to construct three Navy help ships on the Belfast yard, in a contract awarded to a consortium of Harland & Wolff and Navantia, the Spanish state-owned shipbuilder.
The collapse leaves two dominant British shipbuilders, BAE Methods and Babcock Worldwide, the latter of which is reportedly contemplating a bid for the Belfast yard.
Dan Coatsworth, an funding analyst at AJ Bell, mentioned it was a “unhappy day” for the shipbuilder. He mentioned: “The underlying working enterprise will preserve ticking over whereas the administrator tries to discover a purchaser. The stress is now on to discover a new proprietor as shortly as attainable, with Babcock seen as a attainable purchaser.”
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