The iconic Belfast shipyard Harland and Wolff, which built the Titanic, is going into administration on Monday.
"There has been a series of board meetings the result of which is that administrators will be appointed over the course of the day," said a spokesman for the shipbuilder.
Democratic Unionist Party lawmaker Gavin Robinson earlier told BBC Radio Ulster that a short-term solution "seems increasingly unlikely" and that "we've pulled all the political levers that we can."
The shipyard is due to formally cease trading at 5.15 pm (1615 GMT) on Monday.
Dolphin Drilling, the Norwegian parent of Harland and Wolff, is struggling to find a buyer for the giant of Northern Ireland's industrial past, whose huge yellow cranes have towered over the Belfast skyline for decades.