HC Deb 28 June 1976 vol 914 c14W
Mr. Grylls

asked the Secretary of State for Industry how much public money has been committed altogether by the Government to North East Coast Ship-repairers Limited (a) by means of equity participation and (b) by means of loans; and if he will publish the conditions under which these loans were made and the date for their repayment.

Mr. Les Huckfield

NECS was a part of the shipbuilding, ship repairing and marine engineering interests of Court Line which were taken into public ownership in September 1974 for a consideration of £16 million. The terms of the acquisition did not apportion a purchase price to each subsidiary but the Government own all the 1,800,000 £1 ordinary shares of the company. A Government loan of £750,000 was advanced to the Mercantile Dry Dock Co. Ltd., now a subsidiary of NECS, in April 1959 under the Distribution of Industry Act 1945, for the building of a new dry dock. The rate of interest is 5 per cent. and the loan is repayable in half-yearly instalments of £25,000 by 1981. It is secured by a first mortgage on the company's assets and is guaranteed by the parent company, North East Coast Shiprepairers Ltd. The company has met all the repayment instalments due.