The famous name of Harland & Wolff will enter the London Stock Exchange after its parent company decided to start to trade under the name of its Belfast based subsidiary that had started business in 1861.
“InfraStrata plc, the UK quoted company focused on strategic infrastructure projects and physical asset lifecycle management, is pleased to announce it has applied to Companies House to trade under the name Harland & Wolff Group Holdings plc,” the company said in a statement.
Exclusive builder to famous owners of the past
“The company is now at its final stage of full reactivation of all its yards, which involves building a multi-year backlog for its facilities across its five key markets: defence, cruise and ferry, commercial, renewables and energy. The company believes that this change of name will better reflect its ambition in expanding its core business and the significant development of its shipbuilding and fabrication activities,” it said.
Harland & Wolff built all newbuildings of the White Star Line (1871-1934), including Olympic (1911) and Titanic (1912). The last deep sea passenger ship delivered by the company was the P&O liner Canberra (1961) that was retired in 1997 after a long service as a cruise ship. Refits of cruise ships and ferries have continued at the Belfast yard to the present day.
It also built all but two of the ocean liners of Union-Castle Line that mainly traded between the UK and South Africa. The company was was an early user of diesel engines in large liners - Harland & Wolff delivered three 20,000 gross ton mailships to Union-Castle between 1926 and 1930.
Two yards, major naval project in sight
Infrastrata acquired Harland & Woff in 2019 from administrators and the following year it acquired a shipyard in Appledore in north Devon. Together with Navantia, the Spanish shipbuilder, it is one of the four contender groups to build three 40,000 ton fleet solid support ships for the UK Ministry of Defence.
The value of the building contract is estimated to be in the region of £1.6 billion.
“The company has, over the past 18 months, proceeded through various phases, which have included, the acquisition of assets, significant upgrades to all its facilities, the introduction of state-of-the-art technology and has simultaneously established a substantial sales pipeline which now stands at £7.8bn (on an unweighted) and £1.8bn (on a weighted),” it said.
Trading in the company’s shares on the AIM (alternative investment market, for small capitalisation stocks) market of the London Stock Exchange under the new name of Harland & Wolff Group Holdings plc is expected to take effect as soon as a new stock ticker name has been issued by the AIM team.
“An application for the stock ticker “HARL” has been made and will be confirmed as soon as the company’s name has been formally changed at Companies House (registrar of companies),” Infrastrata said.
