Plans by a company associated with Harcourt Developments to spend $80 million (€68.6 million) on former shipbuilding lands in Belfast have been delayed, it emerged yesterday.

In a statement to the Oslo Stock Exchange, Fred Olsen Energy, which is selling the Titanic Quarter lands in Belfast, said the conclusion of a deal would be "more time-consuming than initially envisaged".

Fred Olsen, which owns Harland & Wolff, established heads of agreement on the sale of the 185-acre Titanic Quarter site in June. The deal was expected to be finalised in the third quarter.

The Norwegian firm added however that both parties to the transaction expected it to close before the end of the year.

It did not expand on the reasons behind the delay, but confirmed that the buyer was linked to Harcourt Developments, which is best-known for the €250 million Parkwest development in west Dublin.

The Dublin-based property company, which is controlled by businessman Mr Pat Doherty, did not issue a statement on the matter yesterday, with a spokesman reluctant to even confirm the company's involvement in the Titanic Quarter deal.

The firm did not respond to questions on why the sale agreement, which centres on Belfast's largest-ever property development, had been held up.

Titanic Quarter - so named because it covers lands where the ill-fated Titanic liner was constructed - has been billed as a mixed-use area which will include residential, cultural and industrial units.

When the project was launched last year, it was said to have the potential to attract £1 billion (€1.4 billion) in investment.

It was thought at that time that the quarter's anchor tenant would be the north's inward investment body Invest NI, but this prospect was ruled out last week when the agency rejected Titanic Quarter as a possible location for its new headquarters.