Harland & Wolff Group (HARL) CEO John Wood joined London South East live to present and take questions at our July London South East/focusIR webinar.
John gave an update on the Islandmagee judicial review, noting that they are still fairly optimistic of a positive outcome. He reiterated their commitment to Islandmagee and said they want to see that project built out. He personally spent a week in court listening to the arguments and counter arguments being made, and told us that he thought they would get an indication of the outcome in September.
He said that Harland were three years into their five year plan, and had always expected a post-tax loss in the third year, just not as big as it was. "We've made a loss but expected predicted revenues of £600M and actually we have predicted revenues of £900M, so there are positives as well. It happened because revenue was deferred from one year to the next. We've seen substantial infrastructure building, capability and capacity building and we've been investing heavily in Fleet Solid Support to build that and to build up the pipeline of multi-million pound programmes. Fantastic foundations have been set for the coming years."
In terms of funding, John said: "We have a deal on the table which we could take, but we are not about taking the first deal offered. Unfortunately we committed to a date by which we would get the deal done, but we are hanging on to get that better deal. When you look at the level of debt in the business it's really all about making sure that that debt is coming in at the right price."
Harland & Wolff is a UK quoted company focused on strategic infrastructure projects and the Islandmagee gas caverns project. The recently signed FSS sub-contract for the supply of three Fleet Solid Support Vessels for the UK Navy boosts contracted revenues to £900m and gives the company significant visibility over the medium to longer term.
Harland & Wolff (HARL)