(Bloomberg) -- Spanish state-owned shipbuilder Navantia is nearing a deal to buy the UK’s Harland & Wolff Group Holdings out of administration, according to the Telegraph.
The parties are in exclusive talks for a deal that would see Navantia take control of Harland & Wolff next month, the newspaper reported late Friday, without saying where it got the information. The talks are tentative, it added.
The deal would include all four of the company’s yards — in Northern Ireland, England and Scotland — the newspaper said. Navantia is also understood to be providing temporary funding to Harland & Wolff to ensure that it can continue preparations for a Royal Navy shipbuilding project, the report said.
Harland & Wolff, the owner of the shipping yard that built the Titanic, entered administration, a type of insolvency procedure in the UK, last month. The company appointed administrators from financial advisory firm Teneo.
The company’s assets have attracted the attention of various defense companies, according to media reports, while the Financial Times has previously reported that the UK government tried to persuade Navantia to bid for four of the shipyards.
Navantia and Teneo declined to comment to the Telegraph, while a representative for Harland & Wolff said the company will “provide an update on our strategic process when it’s timely to do so.”
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