The famed UK shipbuilder Harland & Wolff is set to be saved for a second time from bankruptcy as reports indicate Spain’s Navantia and the UK Government have reached terms on a bailout for the shipbuilder’s parent group. Reports from the British media including The Financial Times and Sky News said the announcement could come as early as tomorrow, Thursday, December 19, and would certainly happen within the week.
The reports indicate that the Spanish shipbuilding group which had partnered with Harland & Wolff to win a lucrative UK government contract will now acquire the parent group which consists of four UK shipyards. Navantia is set to pay £70 million ($89 million) and provide job guarantees for the approximately 1,000 employees at the four shipyards.
Navantia is reported to have in turn won critical concessions from the UK government on the contract to build three Fleet Solid Support ships for the Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA). Navantia and Harland & Wolff partnered along with UK design firm BMT and in 2022 were named the preferred bidder for the contract, which when finalized in 2023, was valued at £1.6 billion. Known as Team Resolute, they promised to invest around £100 million into UK shipyards, including £77 million of infrastructure at Harland & Wolff’s Belfast and Appledore shipyards, and a further £21 million in skills and technology transfer from Navantia UK.
The vessels were reported to be the first new constructions planned from the H&W shipyards since 2002. Navantia was set to build the vessels with final assembly for all three of the 216-meter (708-foot) long ships to be completed at Harland & Wolff’s Belfast yard and components from the Appledore yard.
The Belfast yard delivered barges built for the Thames and investments were being made in the infrastructure and training at the yard when the company ran into financial difficulties in 2024. The parent group sought UK government loan guarantees to refinance, but that deal was rejected shortly after the government of Prime Minister Keir Starmer came to office last summer. The parent company, Harland & Wolff Group, was seeking to refinance approximately $200 million in loans from U.S. private investment group Riverstone.
The parent group went into financial administration in September with Rothschilds seeking interest from potential acquirers for the assets. Navantia stepped in to save the UK contract by financing the shipyards which continued to operate while negotiating terms of the bailout with the UK government. The individual shipyards were not part of the bankruptcy proceedings.
It will be the second time that Harland & Wolff is saved from administration. In 2019, a London-based energy company Infrastrata acquired the Belfast shipyard for £6 million and later transformed into the Harland & Wolff Group. It acquired the dormant Appledore shipyard and two small facilities, Arnish and Methil, which were being used as fabricators. Speculation centered on the sale of the Belfast and Appledore yards but according to the reports Navantia will take over all four and guarantee the jobs for a period of time.
The Belfast shipyard dates to 1861 and was a builder of many famous ships including the ocean liner Titanic and her sisters and many passenger ships through the P&O Canberra in 1960. Recently, it has been operating as a repair yard.
