Land hitch hits Laird ship repair bid

A local ship repair entrepreneur has teamed up with other investors in a bid to buy some of the dry docks at the former Cammell Laird shipyard. The Mersey Heritage Ship repair Company (MHS) would like to be able to offer current owner Reddington Finance £6 million to buy the yard.

However, the bank is not prepared to lend £4 million towards the cost of the acquisition due to legal restrictions affecting access to the yard by ships. A&P Southampton, which sold most of the shipyard to Reddington two years ago, retained ownership of the freehold of a four metre strip of land at the waterfront in order to give it control over what ships pass in and out of the yard. Talks with Reddington have reached an impasse because of this strip that’s in front of the dry dock even though Reddington wants to sell to the MHS company as the preferred purchaser.

An approach will now have to be made to negotiate with A&P to lift the restriction.