Harland and Wolff in talks with Spanish shipbuilder

Famous for building the Titanic, the Belfast shipyard was founded in 1861 by Yorkshireman Edward Harland and his German business partner, Gustav Wolff.

By the early 20th Century, Harland and Wolff dominated global shipbuilding and had become the most prolific builder of ocean liners in the world.

However in the period since the Second World War it has lurched from crisis to crisis and was under UK state control from 1977 to 1989.

In 2019 it’s then Norwegian owners withdrew financial support and the business fell into insolvency, having not built a ship in a generation.

It was bought by Infrastrata, a small London-based energy firm which did not have significant experience in marine engineering.

Infrastrata later changed its name to Harland and Wolff and in 2022 won a major Royal Navy contract as part of a consortium led by Navantia.

However financial losses mounted as it scaled up its operations and it became increasingly reliant on high-interest borrowings from a specialist US lender, Riverstone.

Navantia’s main shipyard is at Cadiz in southern Spain.

It employs more than 4,000 and has an annual turnover of around €1.3bn (£835m).