Fieldfisher advises on completion of £5.25m shipyard acquisition

Michelle Shean

Law firm Fieldfisher has assisted on a £5.25m deal that saves 150-year-old Belfast shipyard Harland ans Wolff from collapse.

Michelle Shean, insolvency and restructuring partner at Fieldfisher’s Manchester office, led the team advising London-based energy infrastructure company InfraStrata on the preparation of its bid to administrators, BDO Northern Ireland.

Completion of today’s acquisition marks the culmination of more than two months of intensive negotiations with Harland and Wolff’s administrators, debt providers, Harland and Wolff employees and various other stakeholders in the iconic shipyard, where the infamous ocean-going liner Titanic was built, between 1909 and 1911.

Partners from BDO were appointed as administrators to dispose of the company’s assets on August 6, after the shipyard’s Norwegian parent company, Dolphin Drilling, filed for bankruptcy in June.

InfraStrata, which is developing the Islandmagee Gas Storage Project on the east coast of County Antrim, Northern Ireland, decided to bid to take over Harland and Wolff in a strategic move to bring in-house a large part of the engineering and fabrication requirements for Islandmagee.

As well as enhancing InfraStrata’s ability to deliver Islandmagee, a pioneering underground natural gas storage facility that will significantly boost UK energy security, the successful conclusion of the deal safeguards the future of Harland and Wolff and its 70+ highly skilled staff.

Fieldfisher also advised InfraStrata on arranging a short-term bridging facility to fund the £500,000 deposit on the acquisition, due diligence, transfer of leaseholds and a final asset purchase agreement with the administrators through a newly incorporated Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), which is 100% owned by InfraStrata.

The firm also advised the company on an equity placing to raise £6m and a further £1m fundraise via an offer to shareholders to help fund the acquisition and ongoing working capital requirements.

Fieldfisher will continue to assist InfraStrata with all its AIM-related requirements as well as providing relevant specialist assistance as the company commences construction of Islandmagee next year, finalises offtake agreements for its gas supply, and deals with regulatory issues affecting energy infrastructure in the UK and, potentially, Ireland.

Michelle Shean said: “We are delighted to have helped InfraStrata successfully conclude its purchase of Harland and Wolff and we look forward to assisting them with the next phases of developing Islandmagee.

“Fieldfisher is fortunate to be at the forefront of many critical UK energy developments, but we are particularly pleased to have been part of this unique project that simultaneously protects the future of an historic British asset and national energy security.”

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