Member Info for stokey12

As can be seen from this twitter thread https://x.com/mvbooks2/status/1824058609275216202 the pay budget for the RFA is pitiful and amounts to 0.2 of the entire MoD resouce budget. They could easily afford to increase a 50% increase.

I have just read this opinion piece in CityAm from the Transport Correspondent. While I may not always agree with him when it comes to HARL on this ocassion I would say he is in my opinion right.https://www.cityam.com/former-harland-wolff-chiefs-failure-to-accept-blame-for-troubles-is-embarrassing/

Bubble2021 ref 15.11 post it says

Scotland has a globally significant offshore wind pipeline, with a number of projects set to deliver £30 billion into Scotland’s economy.

To capitalise on this, Scotland needs to ensure its ports and supply chain are ready. That will require investment and commitments from future customers - the offshore wind projects. However, offshore wind projects take many years to deliver and suppliers are only contracted shortly before construction commences.

Catch 22 - ports need pre-investment to be ready for build out, but contracts come too late to act as a signal.

Scotland's solution is simple - collaboration. The Strategic Investment Model (SIM) involves Scottish offshore wind projects working alongside the Scottish Government and its enterprise agencies collaboratively. Offshore wind projects then work alongside a small group of port and supply chain projects to identify practical routes in which ports and supply chain companies gain confidence and certainty earlier on, opening up much needed investment.

On the 13th September, SOWEC is hosting a webinar for those who want to understand the SIM and its impact in Scotland, as well as those who want to understand opportunities for greater collaboration in unlocking supply chain growth.

At the webinar you will hear from those closely involved in the SIM talk about progress to-date, projects being supported and lessons learnt so far.

To book your place, register here: https://lnkd.in/e8KcU--v

Bubble2021 ref 13.18 post see this post on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/feed/?highlightedUpdateType=SHARED_BY_YOUR_PAGE&highlightedUpdateUrn=urn%3Ali%3Aactivity%3A7229471360207458305

This article which is behind a paywall hs caught my attention https://thecurrency.news/articles/158338/harland-and-the-wolff-at-the-door-we-cant-afford-to-let-it-fail/ The part that is in front of the paywall says

'As a boy in the 1980s, Mark Magee remembers trying to cross Mersey Street in East Belfast on his way to school through the rush of traffic bringing men – packed four to a car – to work in the Harland & Wolff. But as of this week, the city’s historic shipyard company is warning investors that it cannot report financial information to them as a going concern and three directors resigned from its board on Tuesday evening. The company “had a terrific workforce,” said Magee, now 56 years old. “The whole skyline was full of cranes” but then “it seemed…' The whole article is an 8 minute read.

There was an event recently to move this forward with the progress projects showcasing to potential investors including some arms length bodies. Both Arnish and Methil were among the projects. we have not heard anything about how it went as far as I am aware. It would be ironic if the Scottish sites are able to get investment that dwarfs the current debt.

Chrisatrdg ref 07.45 post Last time I looked IslandMagee had a book value of circa £10m and in a fire sale might get that. Whether it could be sold as a project is questionable. Assuming a fresh planning application is put in to use the site for hydrogen storage it would need to use a method of creating the caverns other than discharging brine into the sea. As I am an advocate of the KISS principle I would put an alternative proposal which is that Convertible Loan Notes be issued secured against the FSS contract to a value of £250m this would allow Riverstone to be paid off and leave enough working capital to go for some of the large tenders.

The effect of today's departures is that the two remaining NEDs are the two bought in to down a turnaround. I am nt sure if that is a good thing probably not.

SYN00GOLD ref 15.43 post actually it is three NEDs gone. Looks like a complete clear out only AR left.

CaptainSwag ref 07.59 post I think it is more important for the HARL BoD to have a meeting with Mr Palmer. I am ot sure of the reason for the reluctance for them to have such a meeting. I note in relation to FSS that they said that they are in discussion with the 'customer'. In this context the term 'customer' is ambiguous. Strictly speaking the customer is Navantia Uk who is the prime contractor. However it could also mean the MoD who the work is being done for. Equally it could be both.

I notice that the RNS did not mention anything about the requistion for an EGM not even acknowledgement of it.

Unfortunately their track records when it comes to turning around does not give me much confidence.

Levsinvest ref 11.13 post I did look at whether an order under the Company Directors Disqualification Act would be warranted. I am inclined to the view that it would be a close call. The question is whether he continued to trade when HARL was insolvent in circumstances when he knew or should have known that the company could not trade itself out of insolvency. I do not think that could be said to be the case.

Chrisatrdg ref 08.07 post this has always been the position as far as I am aware. The only difference is that it is more likely than I had previously thought.

Broomtree ref 19.31 post While not necessarily disagreeing with what you say with regards to any possible government intervention I think what appear to be the emerging 'market solution' may not be politically palatable. In Scotland if Methil and Arnish were sacrificed then at least one Scottish seat would be at risk probably more when you consider the supply chain. In Northern Ireland the government would need to be able to justify spending an undetermined sum of money for the redevelopment of Casement Park while putting around 500 direct jobs and unknown indirect jobs at risk by not supporting HARL. In addition UKEF support has been given to a Turkish business to buy goods from the UK. A similar package of support is currently being worked on for Ukraine in this case if this support was to include naval vessels thre is the question of capacity. If I recall BAB is supposed to be building a frigate for Ukraine I am not sure if they have started building it yet. So I am not sure that BAB would be first choice if more ships are needed.

There is this from the Navy Lookout twitter feed it says https://x.com/NavyLookout/status/1822606873163362669

Navy Lookout

UNCONFIRMED reports suggests @HarlandWolffplc

could be broken up and sold off in bits, forcing job losses and reducing UK industrial capacity to build future ships for the navy.

The US lender seems intent on selling the business, possibly by means of a pre-pack administration deal in which shareholders will be wiped out without any say in the matter

Australian Billionaire Clive Palmer who owns 3% of shares, says he offered the company £103m in support but the new directors have refused to speak with him.

About 400 employees in the business are also shareholders, if the business was to be sold for a small sum they equally would all lose out

Discussions are ongoing.

Soe interesting comments.

Chrisatdg ref 16.25 post whether he will consider that depends in my view on his motivation. If all he is interested in is getting the Titanic II built then he might look at a trade sale for Belfast. If contact can be made with him then perhaps it maybe possible for something like that is possible. There might be a bit of a shortfall between the investment he is offering and the debt owed to Riverfort.

This from the Belfast Telegraph https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/business/northern-ireland/potential-harland-and-wolff-investor-says-firm-is-dying/a387123534.html The question now is when the EGM will be held.

Newbieinvest ref 08.06 post You ask some very good questions. At present we only have one side of the story so hard to come to any conclusions. I note that the Titanic II project has been around for a decade so maybe Rothschild are examining all possible options in case this one does not bear fruit. It is not clear to me at least if the offer is for the whole group or just Belfast.

Bubble2021 ref 07.54 post I am puzzled if you filter somebody why do you still read their posts? I put Consuela back on filter a month or two back and have not read any posts Consuela has posted since. I am not sure if Mr Palmer is a white knight or just interested in buying Belfast and not the whole group.