THE VOICE OF NORTH 4

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THE DEAL to sell North Vancouver’s Versatile Pacific
Shipyards Inc. te 2 Toronto-based merchant banking firm
has finally been officially compietes.

And though the deal's oft-
delayed completion has been ap-
plauded by local politicians and
representatives of both seller and
purchaser, shipyard union officials
remain concerned over what role
their members will play in the new
Versatile operation.

Completion of its Versatile pur-
chase was announced late Thure-
day night by Shieldings Inc.,
almost six months after B.C.
Pacific Capital Corp., Versatile’s
former owner, announced that it
had signed an agreement to sell the
company’s North Vancouver and
Victoria yards to Shieldings.

Though purchase price was not
disclosed, Versatile worth has been
estimated at approximately $20
million. In early 1987, a local
shipbuilding consortium reportedly
offered close to $40 million for the
yard in a hid to secure the $350
million Polar Class 8 icebreaker
contract for the West Coast.

Final approval of the Polar 8
construction contract for Versatile

has been contingent upon the
company’s successful financial
restructuring.

In addition to completing its
purchase of Versatile, Shieldings
announced that the Polar
Icebreaker Consortium had com-
pleted the design contract for the
icebreaker and would immediately
begin work to secure the vessel's
construction contract.

Peter Quinn, who has been ap-
pointed Versatile’s new chairman

and chief executive officer to
replace outgoing company presi-
dent David Alsop, said Thursday
he was ‘‘very pleased to have
completed the purchase. This has
been a long process.”’

Shieldings plans to ‘‘make
significant changes in the com-
pany’’ to improve efficiency and
reduce costs and will install new
Versatile management ‘‘to stabilize
VPSI and tuzn around the fortunes
of the yards....’"

But Bill Scott, secretary treasur-
er for the Marine Workers and
Boilermakers {Industrial Union,
said thus far the union has not met
Versatile’s new owner, ‘‘so we
don’t know what their philosophy
is going tc be. We know that
(Shieldings) is not coming with any
expertise in shipbuilding. We are
like mushrooms: we are being kept
in the dark.”

Shieldings plans to reduce Ver-
satile’s dependence on new ship-
building contracts and diversity its
operation into complex industrial
manufacturing.

In order to build the Polar 8, the
company will also likely szed a4
corporate partner skilled in ship-
building. But Quinn said specific
plans for Versatile’s restructuring
and any possible Polar 8 partner-
ship will be announced later.

Cooi,
casual

summer

fashions

_ PAGE 13

July 2, 1989 News 985-2131 Classified 986-6222 Distribution 986-1337 40 pages 25¢

DONNA THOMPSON of Vancouver coaxes in a putt daring competition at the B.C. Senior Women’s
Golf Championships held at Seymour Golf and Country Club, earlier this week. Billie Bartley from
Richmond won the tournament — her second senior women’s title — with a cumulative score of 240,
while North Vancouver’s Anna May Taylor and Rosemary Davust placed in the top ten, each with 259.