Titanic builder Harland & Wolff heads for administration

Harland & Wolff, the shipyard that built the Titanic, is set to fall into administration for the second time in only five years.
The Belfast-based company said a review had concluded that Harland & Wolff Group Holdings, its holding company, was “insolvent on a balance sheet basis”.
An administration process will be confined to the holding company, while the operational companies that run its four shipyards and its gas storage facility in Islandmagee, Co Antrim, will continue to trade.
Administrators from Teneo are likely to be appointed this week and the company’s listing on Aim, London’s junior stock market, will be cancelled, wiping out shareholders.
The company, which employs more than a thousand people, said that some “non-core” staff were being made redundant and that “non-core operations”, including its Scilly Ferries operation, marine services arm and its business in the United States, will be wound down or sold off.
The business has struggled to keep up with competition and is overdue on its debt. It was rejected for a £200 million emergency credit facility by the government in July.
It sent its chief executive on immediate leave in July and its finance chief stepped down last week.
Trading of the company’s shares has been suspended since July. The pressure increased last month when the government of the Falklands Islands dropped Harland & Wolff as its preferred bidder to build a new £120 million floating port.
Russell Downs, interim executive chairman, said: “Unfortunately, extremely difficult decisions have had to be taken to preserve the future of our yards.”
The board said there was a “credible pathway” for its shipyards — in Belfast, Methil in Fife, Arnish on the Isle of Lewis and Appledore in north Devon — to continue trading under new ownership. Several parties had expressed interest in buying some or all of the group’s units that hold the shipyard sites, it said.
The plight of Harland & Wolff, whose yellow cranes are a feature of Belfast’s skyline, brings further into doubt the future of a group known for centuries of shipbuilding in the city. Opened in 1861, the business employed about 35,000 people at its peak during the Second World War.
It built its last ship in 2003 and since then has been focused on ship repair, oilrig refurbishment and offshore wind turbine production. It went into administration in 2019 but was acquired out of insolvency. In 2022, it was part of a consortium selected to build Royal Navy support ships.
Susan Fitzgerald, Irish regional secretary at Unite, the principal union at Belfast and Appledore, said: “It is vital that the right buyer is found. Failing that the government should be prepared to intervene.”
Andy Allen, an Ulster Unionist Party politician in Northern Ireland, said: “The yard is more than just a historic landmark; it has a vital role to play in our national defence, particularly in shipbuilding and maintenance. The government must act quickly and decisively to secure its future.”
A government spokesman said: “Harland & Wolff has been clear this process will in no way affect jobs at its shipyards or core operations such as delivering its contracts for the Ministry of Defence.
“At present the market is best-placed to address these challenges, and providing government funding would have meant a significant risk of losing taxpayer money.
“We are continuing to work extensively with all parties to find an outcome that delivers shipbuilding and manufacturing in Belfast, Scotland and across the rest of the UK and protects jobs.”