MV WERFTEN secures EUR 193 million to complete Crystal Endeavor and fund shipyard operations till March 2021
MV WERFTEN announced this week that the yard has received an EUR 193 million loan to complete the Crystal Endeavor for delivery and keep the shipyard operations till March 2021, the company said in its release.
All the funds from the loans will be used in Germany for MV WERFTEN´s shipyards. Genting Hong Kong (GHK), the parent company of MV WERFTEN has invested about 2 billion euros in the shipyards and the construction in progress of the Global Dream and Crystal Endeavor and had created about 3,000 direct jobs in the State plus thousands of indirect jobs in the cruise shipbuilding supply chain and the local economies of Wismar, Rostock and Stralsund.
GHK had been a very good client of Germany, ordering and taking delivery of 22 cruise ships built in Germany, almost half of Germany’s output from 1996 for the cruise brands which were under its control. In 2016 GHK bought the yard group - and named it as a homage to the state Mecklenburg-Vorpommern “MV WERFTEN” - in order to build ships for its three cruise brands as the orderbook from existing shipyards were full and the earliest delivery was 7 years into the future.
GHK invested in MV WERFTEN, previously Nordic Yards, to build cruise ships because they have built the first two AIDA cruise ships and cruise ferries. All the 3,000 employees of MV WERFTEN are nationals of the European Union, with the majority German nationals with the rest from the European Union.
“GHK is an exemplary investor and fully relies on German management in the operations of MV WERFTEN. We are very appreciative of the very significant investment, probably one of the largest made in Germany, and the creation of thousands of direct and indirect jobs for Germany and the EU ,” says Peter Fetten, the Chief Executive Officer. “MV WERFTEN built four luxurious river ships for Crystal Cruises and they have been rated the best river ships in Europe. We are now completing the Crystal Endeavor, which will be again be the most luxurious polar class expedition yacht in the world for Crystal Cruises”, he added.
“It is the impact of the COVID-19 that stopped the world’s cruise fleet, including GHK, that MV WERFTEN has to turn to the State and Federal Government for support under the WSF, which had been established by the German Government to assist industries impacted by COVID-19,” added Carsten Haake, the Chief Financial Officer of MV WERFTEN. “Since 2016, GHK had fully supported the shipyard and had not withdrawn any of the invested funds from Germany.”
GHK cruise ships are mainly deployed in Asia and Dream Cruises, one of its brands, is the world’s first cruise ship to start ocean destination cruises in Taiwan since July 26. Yesterday Genting announced that the World Dream, built in Germany and the 9th best largest resort ship as rated by the Berlitz Guide to cruising, will restart domestic cruising on 6th November. This will be followed by Genting Dream starting cruises in Hainan and China in mid-November. GHK had two Star Cruises ships chartered to the Singapore Government to accommodate post-COVID patients without any incidents. GHK’s is one of few companies which did not have any COVID-19 cases on any of its cruise ships due to the high standards of health and safety developed with over 30 years of cruise experience and is the first cruise line to receive the CIP-M certification by DNV GL for infection prevention , including COVID-19, for the marine industry.
