Harland & Wolff Group Holdings PLC (AIM:HARL) has arranged a new £70mln debt facility that it hopes to increase to £100mln over time.
The maritime manufacturing group, which owns shipyards and fabrication yards in Scotland, Belfast and Devon, said refinancing its credit lines with Astra Asset Management is expected to provide better economic terms than its existing debt facility but is contingent on further rate hikes by the Bank of England and other market movements prior to financial close.
As part of the two-year agreement, H&W will issue Astra 15mln warrants over new ordinary shares at an exercise price of 6.2385p per share, expiring in 60 months.
The facility will provide more financial headroom and flexibility for the company, with chief executive John Wood saying it will be “incredibly useful to meet our capital expenditure and working capital obligations towards some key and large contracts that we have been negotiating over the last 18 months, due to come to fruition in the next couple of quarters”.
Shares in the company fell 1.7% to 7.77p in early trading on Wednesday.