KfW IPEX-Bank arrested beleaguered Asian cruise company Genting Hong Kong’s last operational cruise ship within hours of it tying up at Singapore’s cruise terminal on Wednesday.
The German bank filed a mortgage claim against the 150,700-gt World Dream (built 2017), a vessel unofficially regarded as the flagship of Genting’s Asia-focused Dream Cruises brand.
Dream Cruises announced on Monday that the World Dream would terminate its cruise operations when it returned to Singapore at the conclusion of a cruise scheduled to end on 2 March.
A statement on the cruise operator’s website said that mounting creditor pressure posed an immediate threat to the continued operation of the ship.
The company said that despite obtaining emergency funding that allowed the World Dream to complete 16 scheduled cruises after its liquidation filing in January, its liquidity continued to deteriorate.
The World Dream had been operating short cruises to nowhere out of Singapore since late 2020.
The World Dream is the fourth of Genting’s fleet of 17 cruise ships that is known to have been placed under arrest.
The three ships of the company’s US-based luxury cruise brand Crystal Cruises were arrested in early February. Crystal filed for a winding down shortly afterwards.
Genting’s joint provisional liquidators have argued in recent weeks for the restructuring of Dream Cruises, which is considered the most valuable the company’s cruise brands. On Monday they said that negotiations with creditors remained ongoing.
Dream Cruises has a fleet of three cruise ships based in Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
