Navantia close to £70m purchase of stricken Titanic builder Harland & Wolff Harland & Wolff (H&W), the stricken Titanic shipbuilder, is on the brink of a £70m government-backed rescue deal that will include guarantees of job security for the company's workforce.
Sky News has learnt that ministers hope to announce as soon as Thursday that H&W and its four UK shipyards are being acquired by Navantia, the Spanish shipbuilder, after months of negotiations.
The Spanish group is expected to pay about £70m for H&W's assets, while also benefiting from improved terms on a government contract to build three Fleet Solid Support vessels for the Royal Navy.
Under the deal, Navantia will take over all of H&W's sites, following its parent company's collapse into administration during the autumn.
In return, it is understood to have agreed to provide guarantees that it will retain H&W's existing workforce for a specific period, the length of which was unclear on Tuesday.
