§ Mr. Craigasked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he has anything to add to his statements of 22nd November 1976 and 22nd December 1976 about the future capital structure of Short Brothers Limited, with particular reference to the 524W acquisition of minority shareholdings in the company.
§ Mr. ConcannonYes. There are at present two minority shareholdings in Short Brothers Limited, namely, Harland and Wolff Limited and Rolls-Royce Limited (in liquidation. Of the total issue of 3,600,000 ordinary voting shares of £1, Rolls-Royce and Harland and Wolff each hold 360,000. It is desirable for Government to acquire these shares and so bring the company completely within the ownership of the Northern Ireland Department of Commerce and the Department of Industry.
The first step will be to acquire the Rolls-Royce shareholding and a consideration of £20,000 has been agreed with the receiver of that company. Subsequently arrangements will be made to acquire the shares held by Harland and Wolff, for a similar consideration.
Due to the inadequacy of present statutory powers for these transactions, it is proposed to finance the acquisitions extra-statutorily.