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Belfast shipbuilder Harland & Wolff has suspended trading in its shares in London after accounting issues delayed the filing of its audited annual results.
The Aim-listed company, which owns the shipyard that built the Titanic, said it had been in “ongoing discussion” with its auditors over how to recognise revenues related to the “multiyear and complex nature of some of the contracts under which the company is working”.
H&W said the audited results would now be published a week after the original June 30 deadline.
The delay comes at a time of uncertainty about government-backed financial support for the company, which is trying to reduce its financing costs.
H&W has a $115mn credit facility with New York-based Riverstone Credit Partners that matures at the end of December. It has been in talks with a group of banks to secure a £200mn loan at a lower interest rate with the UK government acting as a guarantor.
Without that guarantee, the lossmaking business would need to find other financing to help meet its working capital requirements and fulfil key contracts that include building three ships in a £1.6bn Royal Navy contract. H&W won the contract in 2022 as part of a consortium led by Spain’s Navantia.
H&W said on Monday that it expected ministers to make a decision on the export finance guarantee after this Thursday’s general election but warned that “should there be any material delays to securing the facility” after that, the company’s “ability to execute new and large contacts would be adversely affected”.
John Wood, H&W chief executive, told the Financial Times last month that “all the commercial banks are lined up ready and waiting to go and I see no reason why a decision can’t be made fairly soon”.
Unaudited results, published on Monday, showed that the company recorded an operating loss of £24.7mn in the year to the end of December 2023, down from a loss of £58.5mn in 2022. Revenues jumped from £27.8mn in 2022 to £86.9mn last year.
H&W’s interest costs rose from £12.29mn in 2022 to £18.37mn in 2023.
Arun Raman, chief financial officer, said that while he was “encouraged by the growth in revenues”, the company’s “financing costs are high”.
“It is crucial to close the UKEF facility as soon as possible in order to provide the stable long-term working capital needed for securing large, multiyear contracts. Our engagement with the UK government continues in order to bring this deal to closure.”