PwC finds buyer for troubled shipyard
PricewaterhouseCoopers, the receivers for shipbuilder Cammell Laird, has accepted an offer for the Teeside operation a week after reports suggested talks for a buyer had broken down.
The offer, subject to further negotiations, is from Eric Welsh, former director of the shipyard. A spokeswoman for PwC said that the Big Five firm had accepted the offer for an undisclosed sum.
Media reports last week indicated that talks with Alchemy, the venture capital business, and private ship repair company A&P had broken down just as they were close to finalising a deal.
Welsh’s offer will relieve some of the strain, but PwC still has to find buyers for the shipping company’s two other yards at Birkenhead and Tyneside. Cammell’s Teeside business represents the smallest unit of the company and discussions for a sale of the other operations are ongoing.
A number of cancelled shipbuilding orders forced the company into receivership in April. Cammell Laird has already had to cut an extra 250 jobs following the initial 350 redundancies announced in April.
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