Genoa-based Costa Crociere has today finalised a €550m ($779.6m) loan from the European Investment Bank that will help finance the first four ships in a five-vessel newbuilding programme.
Interviewed in Genoa, where he was hosting the naming ceremony for two of those ships, the 144,500 dwt Costa Pacifica and the 92,600 dwt Luminosa, chief executive Pier Luigi Foschi decribed the loan as a critical element in the company’s response to the economic crisis.
“This crisis is unprecedented,” he said. “No-one expected consumers to be hit with such speed and depth. And there are no reference points to devise a strategy to cope with it. Every company is trying to identify what is best.”
He said Costa was working to cut costs where possible while defending product quality and continuing to build the brand outside Italy. It would also continue to invest along the lines defined before the crisis hit.
While stressing that events could trump the best-laid strategies, he said: “We have no plans to change our delivery programme. We are also happy with the size of the ships. We don’t want gigantic ships; we won’t go that route.”
As for the EIB loan, he said it was the first for a cruise shipping company’s newbuilding programme, and said that the terms were considerably more favorable than those available from commercial banks.
He added that Costa’s case had been buttressed by Fincantieri, which is all but its house shipbuilder.
The EIB had responded favorably to Costa’s argument that the loan would generate jobs in Italy and beyond, and particularly in under-developed regions where the EIB is particularly active.
Mr Foschi said the loan would guarantee employment at Fincantieri yards and on Costa’s ships — with struggling regions in the south of Italy a major source of on board workers for the company — as well as in the Baltic and Mediterranean seas, where the ships will be based.
EIB vice-president Dario Scannapieco said the loan demonstrated the importance that the EIB attached to the economic development in the tourism sector. It would have “major knock-on effects” for direct and indirect employment in the sector due to Costa’s reliance on Fincantieri technology.
The two latest vessels aside, the funding will go towards construction of a sister ship for each, due for delivery over the next two years.
Costa will seek additional financing and use its own cash flow to complete those vessels and to fund the final vessel in the programme — another sistership for the Costa Pacifica — due for delivery in 2012.
Interviewed in Genoa, where he was hosting the naming ceremony for two of those ships, the 144,500 dwt Costa Pacifica and the 92,600 dwt Luminosa, chief executive Pier Luigi Foschi decribed the loan as a critical element in the company’s response to the economic crisis.
“This crisis is unprecedented,” he said. “No-one expected consumers to be hit with such speed and depth. And there are no reference points to devise a strategy to cope with it. Every company is trying to identify what is best.”
He said Costa was working to cut costs where possible while defending product quality and continuing to build the brand outside Italy. It would also continue to invest along the lines defined before the crisis hit.
While stressing that events could trump the best-laid strategies, he said: “We have no plans to change our delivery programme. We are also happy with the size of the ships. We don’t want gigantic ships; we won’t go that route.”
As for the EIB loan, he said it was the first for a cruise shipping company’s newbuilding programme, and said that the terms were considerably more favorable than those available from commercial banks.
He added that Costa’s case had been buttressed by Fincantieri, which is all but its house shipbuilder.
The EIB had responded favorably to Costa’s argument that the loan would generate jobs in Italy and beyond, and particularly in under-developed regions where the EIB is particularly active.
Mr Foschi said the loan would guarantee employment at Fincantieri yards and on Costa’s ships — with struggling regions in the south of Italy a major source of on board workers for the company — as well as in the Baltic and Mediterranean seas, where the ships will be based.
EIB vice-president Dario Scannapieco said the loan demonstrated the importance that the EIB attached to the economic development in the tourism sector. It would have “major knock-on effects” for direct and indirect employment in the sector due to Costa’s reliance on Fincantieri technology.
The two latest vessels aside, the funding will go towards construction of a sister ship for each, due for delivery over the next two years.
Costa will seek additional financing and use its own cash flow to complete those vessels and to fund the final vessel in the programme — another sistership for the Costa Pacifica — due for delivery in 2012.