Belfast shipyard Harland and Wolff has been bought by UK based energy company Infrastata for £6m.
Harland and Wolff faced an uncertain future after it went into administration in August.
The new owners say they are focused on the development and commercialisation of advanced high-value energy infrastructure projects across the world.
The yard had originally been touted to take part in the Type 31e Frigate build programme as part of the Babcock consortium but that is now unlikely. It is now more likely that Rosyth will do the vast bulk of the work required to build and assemble the new frigates.
John Wood, CEO of InfraStrata, said:
“Harland and Wolff is a landmark asset and its reputation as one of the finest multi-purpose fabrication facilities in Europe is testament to its highly skilled team in Belfast. 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.
We are delighted to be able to retain 100% of personnel who did not opt to take voluntary redundancy earlier this year.
Our Islandmagee Gas Storage Project will benefit greatly from their expertise in the energy sector, both technically and economically, and we look forward to growing the workforce significantly in the coming years. While our core priority will be to deliver our flagship project in Islandmagee, we believe there are opportunities to welcome potential new clients due to the diverse skill set at the facility.
This acquisition will clearly provide substantial advantages through vertical integration in addition to demonstrating our commitment to the Northern Irish economy, particularly in the post-Brexit era.”
The InfraStrata Board say it plans to significantly increase the size of the workforce by several hundred over the next five years as it progresses the development of its infrastructure projects.
Shame that a yard has to go into administration before its ‘unique’ abilities to carry out this substantial workload is recognised. Can’t help but worry just how long term this strategy is, it just feels like its suddenly useful for a specific purpose that makes the £6m small fry in the great scheme of things and perhaps cheaper than giving them the work as a going concern, but once its usefulness in this specific project is over and unless there is another one of similar nature it will just become redundant again. If there is no intention of taking on… Read more »
I’m more optimistic. I think specialising in fabrication for the renewable energy sector is the safest long term bet to go. Its probably better they stay out of T31 tbh as much as I’d love to see them involved in ship building I don’t think the skill base is there anymore so would just delay and add risk. If this group plans to double or treble the workforce like they say they are they could have renewable projects lined up for the next 20 years.
That’s good news, a mix of commercial and Naval shipbuilding/construction was always what the NSS was about. It also leaves the door open for T31 work for the other yards that are under threat.
Brilliant news, now let’s hope Wrightbus can be saved too!
Yeah, it builds The Boris bus and he’s now PM, he must help his Bus makers company…surely.
I was surprised to hear that Wrightbus is the last coach builder left in the UK. I thought there was a big one in Derby somewhere. They must have all hit the wall recently. Wrightbus from the little I know had invested heavily to keep up with electric hybrid engines etc but couldn’t complete with the Chinese on price. Government policy of buying the cheapest product regardless of wherever it comes from really needs to be looked at. If they are buying products heavily subsidised by other governments, they are making short term savings at the cost of destroying our… Read more »
Mm, an old, illustrious UK concern under a very young AIM-lister who’s shares are scraping the barrel.
Great News.An iconic British name. My Grandfather was there when Titanic was launched. Belfast,Canberra, and Eagle are the names we would probably prefer to remember but still a rich piece of our History.