Titanic shipbuilder formally enters administration

Titanic shipbuilder formally enters administration\n\nGETTY IMAGES The company’s executive chairman is optimistic that a new owner or owners will be found for the yards\n\nHarland and Wolff, the Belfast-based shipbuilder which built the Titanic, has formally entered administration for the second time in five years. Last week the company’s board had warned that the move was inevitable. The administration process is confined to the holding company, Harland & Wolff Group Holdings plc, with the operational companies which run the yards continuing to trade. Its main yard is in Belfast with other operations at Appledore in England and Methil and Arnish in Scotland.\n\n\\'Reduce the headcount\\'\n\nThe company’s executive chairman, Russell Downs, is optimistic that a new owner or owners will be found for the yards. Gavin Park and Matt Cowlishaw of Teneo Financial Advisory have been appointed as joint administrators. The holding company currently has 59 employees. In a statement Harland and Wolff said: "The Administrators will unfortunately be required to reduce the headcount upon appointment. "A number of employees will be retained to provide certain required services to the operational companies under a

transitional services agreement with the Administrators." The company has also restated that the administration process means that shareholders in Harland and Wolff will see the value of their investment wiped out.\n\nTitanic builders\n\nVernon Lewis Gallery/Stocktrek Images/Getty RMS Titanic departing Southampton on 10 April 1912\n\nFamous for building the Titanic, the Belfast shipyard was founded in 1861 by Yorkshireman Edward Harland and his German business partner, Gustav Wolff. By the early 20th Century, Harland and Wolff dominated global shipbuilding and had become the most prolific builder of ocean liners in the world.\n\nWhat happened to Harland and Wolff?\n\nHarland and Wolff was bought out of administration in 2019. Its then Norwegian owners had withdrawn support and the business fell into insolvency, having not built a ship in a generation. The new owner, Infrastrata, was a small London-based energy firm which did not have significant experience in marine engineering. Infrastrata later changed its name to Harland and Wolff and in 2022 won a major Royal Navy contract as part of a consortium led by Navantia, Spain’s state-owned shipbuilder. However financial losses mounted as it scaled up its operations.\n\nGETTY IMAGES