Trading in the parent company of the Titanic shipyard owner stopped

Trading in shares in shipbuilder Harland and Wolff, which owns the Belfast shipyard where the Titanic was built, was suspended on Monday after the company failed to publish independently audited accounts for 2023 and posted a loss of £43 million.

The company said it was in discussions with auditors about accounting for revenue from multi-year contracts, which led to a delay in publication beyond the June 30 deadline.

The results are now due to be published in a week. Until then, trading in the shares, which have fallen by almost 38 percent this year, has been suspended.

Unaudited accounts show that revenue tripled to £86.91 million last year, while net loss fell to £43.09 million from £70 million in 2022.

The company expects to achieve sales of £200 million in the current financial year, but there remains uncertainty over a government guarantee for bank loans of a similar amount.

A decision on the guarantee is expected after the British general election on Thursday, but Harland & Wolff suggested that “significant delays” would affect the group’s ability to win new contracts.

Harland and Wolff was saved from bankruptcy at the end of 2019 thanks to a six million pound takeover by British energy infrastructure company InfraStrata, which has since taken over the name of its subsidiary.

Founded in 1861, the shipyard was the construction site of the Titanic, which sank during its maiden voyage in April 1912 after colliding with an iceberg off the coast of Newfoundland, resulting in the deaths of nearly 1,500 passengers.

In addition, the company built numerous military ships during the Second World War as well as the tanker Myrina, the first so-called supertanker built in Great Britain.

Still, the company has struggled in recent decades, but said on Monday that recent orders, including one for the British Navy next year, had boosted operations and led to a rise in the workforce to 1,512 from 1,010 employees at the end of last year.

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