§ Mr. Gryllsasked 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 HuckfieldNECS 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.