Harland & Wolff set to be rescued in deal with Spanish company

Spain’s state-owned shipbuilder is expected to confirm on Thursday that it is buying Harland & Wolff, the Belfast shipyard famous for the Titanic.

has been in navantia special conversation From October after Harland & Wolff’s holding company went into administration.

All jobs at the firm are expected to be saved in the deal, which is also expected to include Harland & Wolff’s facilities in Scotland and England.

The BBC understands it is also expected to be announced in Parliament on Thursday.

The government may announce that it is improving the terms of that deal to reflect increased costs.

The agreement is to be presented as the early fruits of the government’s “reset” after Brexit.

Navantia, which is 100% owned by the Government of Spain, has been a significant recipient of funding from the European Commission as part of the European Defense Fund.

Joining the fund is one possible aim of the UK-EU security reset, which will be discussed at a summit early in the new year.

The Spanish economy minister responsible for its state-owned businesses, Carlos Cuerpo, met with Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds in London last month.

Navantia already has a business relationship with Harland & Wolff. It is the main contractor of the project to build three support vessels. Royal NavyWith Harland & Wolff acting as the UK subcontractor.

The company employs a core staff of approximately 1,200 in Appledore in Belfast, England and Methil and Arnish in Scotland.

Navantia’s main shipyard is in Cadiz, southern Spain.

It employs over 4,000 people and has an annual turnover of approximately €1.3bn (£835m).

Harland & Wolff was founded in 1861 by Edward Harland of Yorkshire and his German business partner Gustav Wolff.

By the beginning of the 20th century, Harland & Wolff dominated global shipbuilding and became the most prolific builder of ocean-going ships in the world.

However, in the post-World War II period it lurched from one crisis to another and was under UK state control from 1977 to 1989.

In 2019, its then Norwegian owners withdrew financial support and the business went bankrupt due to not having built a ship in a generation.

It was purchased by Infrastrata, a small London-based energy firm that did not have significant experience in marine engineering.

Infrastrata later changed its name to Harland & Wolff and won the Royal Navy contract in 2022 as part of the Navantia-led consortium.

However, as its operations grew, financial losses increased and it became dependent on high-interest borrowing from Riverstone, a specialist US lender.

The company had asked for a £200m government loan guarantee to refinance its borrowings but this was rejected as being too risky for taxpayers.

Its holding company is Entered administration in September And restructuring specialist Russell Downs was appointed to run the business and find a new owner.