Historic Belfast shipyard Harland and Wolff rescued by Infrastrata in £6m deal
The Belfast shipyard that built the Titanic has been rescued in a £6m deal by UK listed infrastructure company Infrastrata.
Infrastrata has agreed to buy Harland and Wolff Heavy Industries and Harland and Wolff Group for a total consideration of £6m.
The company said that the 79 employees who did not opt for voluntary redundancy earlier in the year will be retained following the completion of the deal.
Harland and Wolff faced an uncertain future after it went into administration in August. The company’s owner, Norwegian firm Dolphin Drilling, had filed for bankruptcy in June and put the yard up for sale, but no buyer had been found.
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The shipyard, which built the Titanic between 1909 and 1911, traces its history back to 1861. It has struggled in the face of stiff competition from abroad, and made a loss of £5.8m in 2016 – the last year for which it filed accounts.
Harland and Wolff’s 130 staff were given redundancy notices in August.
Infrastrata said it planned to significantly increase the size of the workforce by several hundred over the next five years.
John Wood, chief executive of Infrastrata, said: “This acquisition is a function of deep operational synergies between the various business segments of the company with Harland and Wolff underpinning the construction economics of the Islandmagee gas storage project and other future projects.”
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Julian Smith, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, said: “I firmly believe that the shipyard has a promising future and that InfraStrata’s plans present an exciting opportunity for both Belfast and Northern Ireland’s manufacturing and energy sectors.”
The head of manufacturing for union Unite, Steve Turner, praised Harland and Wolff’s workers who had held a sit in at the shipyard over recent weeks.
“I always knew that this incredible workforce would fight for and win the future that this community wholeheartedly deserves. They have stood strong and resolute while others were too ready to throw in the towel,” he said.
“In the coming days we will continue to meet with Infrastrata, the yard’s new owners, and we will seek to secure an outlook that puts this community first and eliminates the insecurity that it has been forced to endure in recent weeks,” he added.