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Someone in the navantia press office has a wicked sense of humour sending out a picture of the back of John Wood’s head with their pr. 😬

https://renews.biz/98401/navantia-completes-harland-wolff-shipyard-deal/

Broomtree, congratulations on finding a company that’s done well out of all this: rarer than hens teeth. Although another company that’s done very well are the administrators, who have their work cut out trying to reorganise this fruit salad JW and AR have set up.

The Kraken / marine services division or whatever you want to call it is an interesting case in point. We were told by RNS that: “the Company had entered into Heads of Terms (HoT) with Kraken Marine Services Limited ("KMS" or the "Seller") for the acquisition of the entire business including the assets of the Seller.”

Reading the administrators proposal for HWMS (most recent document on companies house) it’s clear that harl acquired Jack s**t. The vessels went back to the lessor after being spruced up at Harland and Wolff’s expense. And somehow, despite going from formation to administration in under 11months, they racked up debts of £2.3m and left 20 staff out of pocket.

There was a time when lying in and RNS (or at best, not correcting information that turned out to be untrue) was treated very seriously by the authorities.

The ferry thing was a fiasco from start to finish. If you read City AM they spend 70k putting their passengers on helicopters (which of course left the helicopter company 70k out of pocket). But if they spent £25m on that misadventure as you claim, that is truly scandalous and someone needs to be held to account for it.

https://www.cityam.com/harland-wolffs-botched-scilly-ferries-venture-collapsed-owing-3m/

Not sure what you mean about the tories - they were the ones who first mooted the idea of turning down the guarantee.

So you’re saying there WAS “financial” and/or “corporate” benefit to the £25m of spending that was referenced? When do we get to see evidence of that? Or are shareholders not worthy of that information?

I notice you (as usual) go on some rambling conspiratorial rant rather than address the question.

I have just returned from the rabbit hole that is Harland & Wolff entities on companies house, and I have questions.

Am I right in thinking that the four yards have been sold as a going concern to Navantia? Therefore those companies should file their 2023 accounts by next Tuesday (31st December)?

I’ve noticed that a couple more Group companies have gone into liquidation (e.g. H&W (technologies) on 19th November - company number 14947732) or administration (e.g. H&W (marine services) on 20th - company number 15397566). What gives?

And perhaps the biggest question of all, I seem to remember the new guy (Downs?) saying that the administrators were looking into the ‘misapplication of funds’ to the tune of £25m. Do we ever get to see the outcome of that? Seems rather important, given the phrase used was “little or no financial or corporate benefit.”.

Can anyone enlighten me?

I thought the legal challenge was in bed with JW (so to speak). This was from the Belfast Telegraph in September. Or have relations frayed?

‘The shareholders group, which is believed to hold around 30% of the company’s stock, are understood to be working with John Wood, the former CEO of the company.’

Just spotted this too for anyone who’s interested. Quite a long one but there’s some stuff I didn’t previously know about.

https://thecritic.co.uk/how-hw-hit-the-iceberg/

Looking at the documents the story is based on, the company had about £200k left in the bank. Utter shambles.

Not that it will be any comfort to those who have lost money on here, but it looks like 75 unsecured creditors to the tune of £1.2m also won’t be seeing a penny out of the process. Presumably that’s taxi-drivers, subbies, suppliers, the works. The long arm of incompetence reaches far beyond the Larne it seems.

https://www.cityam.com/huge-debts-at-titanic-shipbuilder-harland-wolff-revealed/

Of course JW’s version of events is disputed. There is a running theme here.

Site owner Finlay Finlayson said his land was sold "with the best intentions" and he was disappointed that plans by Harland & Wolff had not come to fruition.

Mr Sharman has since re-located his business to Fort William and said he has been able to expand but said the closure had been a big loss to Mallaig, which has had a difficult tourism season amid continuing uncertainty over the Jacobite steam train.

He said: "It was a tourist hotspot, we were supporting visitors to the marina. Staff at the yard would put back into other businesses - we all supported each other."

The Herald has seem a legal document which confirms that the site was left in good condition and Mr Sharman complied with all conditions attached to his lease.

Responding to Mr Wood's claims he said: "We have never been or never will be in rent arrears.

"We were not given six months notice and yes we had the option to buy but every time we got to an agreed price it was increased.

"Admittedly the cradles we left were in poor condition as I had taken the new ones with us as they belonged to me.

"We had had various issues regarding HSE but ultimately managed to comply with regulations."

Article here https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/24640318.former-harland-wolffe-boss-defends-highland-buyout/

John Wood silenced no more… apparently it was all part of an elaborate plan to service an imaginary contract on imaginary ships they were going to build for Calmac. Course it was.

The former boss of troubled shipping giant Harland & Wolff has defended his decision to acquire a small boat yard site which led to the closure of a "lifeblood" Highland business.

Donald Sharman, owner of Mallaig Boat Yard, claims he was told in a text message that the site his business had operated on for more than 10 years had been sold to the firm, which is best known for building the Titanic.

The company announced this month that it has called in administrators leaving hundreds of manufacturing jobs in Scotland facing an uncertain future.

At the time of the buyout, around a year ago, Harland & Wolff was headed up by chief executive John Wood who left in July after the firm announced it was winding down "non-core" business lines.

Mr Sharman said he was surprised that a major company would "take an interest in a little backyard boatyard in the middle of nowhere that could do only a quarter of what they said they were intending to do with it."

The company bought the site following a dispute over a repair carried out on one of the former CEO's private boats by the Mallaig business.

Speaking exclusive to The Herald Mr Wood said the yard was acquired as part of a plan by Harland & Wolff to redevelop Mallaig as part of a larger Scottish strategy to maintain fish farm vessels, larger boats and commercial trawlers.

He said the company owned other small slipways.

He said: "In addition Mallaig was intended to be one of our service support centres for dealing with proposed new build ferries for CalMac.

"Our offering would have been to build and offer through-life support.

"The entire Scottish strategy for H&W was approved by the board initially in 2023, which included several sites including Mallaig."

He claimed Mr Sharman was in significant arrears and this motivated the landlord's decision to sell. He said the owner was offered six months notice to vacate the site and longer if it could be negotiated.

He made other claims against Mr Sharman saying the site did not meet Health and Safety Executive standards, that winches and cradles failed safety examinations and he was surprised it had not been shut down.

He said: "After several surveys the decision was made that it would be cheaper to demolish the entire facility and start to rebuild.

"A new design, plant and equipment had been identified which would have led to a significant upgrade of the facility.

"Donald had been offered to acquire the freehold on the property on numerous occasions in the past five years by the landlord and could not raise the funding to proceed."

He added: "Whilst it is unfortunate that the H&W plan has not materialised with government doing a U-turn on a guarantee, given the waterside facility I am sure it will return to being a prosperou

HGM01

FFS 🙈

Forest - JW should’ve been NDA’d up to his eyeballs the minute he stepped out of the door, that might’ve prevented him from continuing to spout utter unicornland nonsense.

Forest- ref:

JW can be accused of just about anything now, as we will never ever see any further published accounts - other than those showing Shareholders receiving a Big Fat Zero on completion of Administration.

Might those with the "power" be in a position to encourage all sorts of stories?

How many such stories will be corroborated with Hard Evidence?

See:

The Herald has contacted Mr Wood for Comment.

Cont.

"Harland & Wolff have destroyed a local business and the businesses that we were supporting."

Another local business owner said: "It's outrageous what has gone on here.

"The yard closed before it opened, leaving a derelict yard in the middle of the village.

"We have had the worst summer ever - it's been the wettest on record.

"The (Jacobite] steam train is running but at much reduced numbers so together with the dreadful weather it has been very hard for all the businesses."

Mr Finlayson said his site was sold "with the best intentions".

He said: "We had high hopes for Harland & Wolff and this is disappointing."

The Herald has contacted Mr Wood for comment.

Bit more detail here:

He believes the site was bought for a sum in the region of £600,000.

Mr Sharman has since relocated the business to Corpach in Fort William and says he has been able to expand, but said the business was a big loss to the area.

"The local community in Mallaig is left with a vacant hole in the centre of the village.

"It was a tourist hotspot, we were supporting visitors to the marina. Staff at the yard would put back into other businesses - we all sup - ported each other.

"I employed at the time 11 men in Mallaig.

We lost a few after Covid so now those boys have to travel to Fort William every day.

"My business in Mallaig was sound, it was steady and we were providing a reliable service to local charter and fishing vessels.

Did anyone else know about a third yard in Scotland? Something distinctly fishy about this, and I don’t mean the kippers.

https://www.scotsman.com/regions/inverness-highlands-and-islands/highland-yard-owner-accused-troubled-shipbuilding-giant-of-destroying-businesses-4812197

A Highland boat yard owner has claimed he was “forced out” of the “tourist hotspot” he had operated in for more than a decade after it was bought over by a troubled shipping firm.

At the time of the buyout of the land in Mallaig, Harland & Wolff was headed up by chief executive, John Wood. He left in July after the firm announced it was winding down its “non-core” business lines. Mr Sharman said he had carried out repairs for Mr Wood on one of his private boats.

He told the Herald on Sunday: “I got a text message on September 9 last year to tell me that the boatyard had been sold to Harland & Wolff and I got a letter the next day saying we had to be locked up by December 4 or around that date.

“It was a big shock because we were in the process of negotiating a new lease. They [Harland & Wolff] came in and made a vague attempt to advertise for an apprentice but never got going.”

Forest, two weeks ago you posted this:

“As I wrote previously, I'm going to become a bit of a voyeur - reading, but no longer commenting on LSE message boards.”

Since then, you’ve posted well over fifty times, announced world war three, accused the Vietnamese of sinking HARL and are now making some dubious claims about ethnicity.

What gives?

Garonne - not sure which ‘a few million’ you’re referring to, but what use is a £700m contract if you keep having to extend your 14% interest debt facility and still can’t pay your suppliers? Revenue doesn’t equal profit. Especially revenue you’re not even in receipt of.

How is this the Labour Government’s fault Garone? HARL was run so badly, even the tories weren’t going to approve funding - just take a look at the extensive press reports from May. The general elected saved Jeremy Hunt from having to take an embarrassing decision and kick the can down the road to Labour. Neither Government should be ok with taking barmy decisions with every crackpot BOD spending money like it’s going out of fashion. This is from a recent article in the FT:

'In some ways, we were lucky that the first big decision we were handed was such an obvious basket case," said one Labour figure. "There were plenty of red flags around it and it was a clear-cut decision not to go ahead with the loan guarantee."