Harland & Wolff crisis deepens: Titanic shipbuilder loses £120m Falkland Islands port contract
Embattled Harland & Wolff is facing fresh financial trouble after the Falklands government said it had ceased negotiating over a potential £120m contract.
The Belfast shipyard was awarded “preferred bidder status” for a project to re-develop a port in the Falklands Islands capital, Stanley, in early March.
“Despite productive discussions, the Falkland Islands Government (FIG) and Harland & Wolff were unable to reach a mutually acceptable commercial position,” the company said in a statement on Wednesday.
“FIG acknowledges the effort and commitment demonstrated by Harland & Wolff throughout this process.”
Harland & Wolff, which built the Titanic, was plunged into crisis in July after the new Labour government confirmed it could not justify spending taxpayer money to prop up the business. The loss-making firm had requested the government guarantee for a £200m loan from its lenders.
It has since secured its short-term future with £20m in emergency funding from the US investment group Riverstone Credit Partners. However, questions are still swirling over how the business intends to recover in the medium to long-term.
Shares in Aim-listed Harland are currently suspended after it failed to produce audited annual results. Its most recent unaudited report revealed pre-tax losses of £43m in 2023.
Morning Wire reported last week the Falklands contract was at risk ahead of an extraordinary meeting of the Islands’ executive committee on the matter.
The news will raise further concern over the status of Harland’s other projects. These include a defining £1.6bn contract with the Ministry of Defence to build ships for the Royal Navy.
Last week, it scrapped Scilly Ferries, a new ferry service which was supposed to run between Penzance and the Isles of Scilly but never made a single a journey.