Rich people can be receptive to expensive toys, and of course, self-respecting people might snap now. Showing off with one of the largest cruise ships in the world, but the Global dream, currently still based in the Wismar shipyard, is quite bulky in its dimensions for up to 9500 passengers. The gem is also said to cost 1.5 billion euros, and the search for a buyer is ongoing. The provisional insolvency administrator Christoph Morgen exchanged information with the owner of the insolvent MV shipyards – Genting Hong Kong – on Friday. That was urgently needed, because the ship, which is 75 percent complete, needs a buyer, and in the end that buyer can probably only be Genting Hong Kong.
Time is short, insolvency proceedings are to be opened on March 1st, and the owner was no longer able to pay the wages due for December. Morgen then reported that the talks had a “constructive” atmosphere, but no concrete results were leaked out, and he now has to try it with other potential customers as well.
There are very few for whom buying such a ship is interesting
Not long ago it was Global dream the heart of the MV shipyards, now the worst scenario is to be averted: that the ship ends up as a heap of scrap. Insolvency administrator Morgen has already paid a visit to the locations and also to the ship, he “definitely wants to finish building it”. He has already seen many shipyards and “shipbuilding plants” – the technical term for the really big vessels Global dream be “impressive”. Warm words for everyone who sweated and worked hard on it: “there are very few shipyards in the world that can build such a ship”. What can also be said: There are very few for whom buying such a ship is interesting.
This is because it differs from the pleasure ships à la Traumschiff in its equipment: it is primarily geared towards the fun needs of gambling fans, it is a floating casino. An audience for this can be found in the Asian market – gambling on land is prohibited in China. The cabins are designed for four people, rather unusual for Europe. Since many cruises have been canceled due to the pandemic and no reliable forecasts can be made for the situation to calm down, the mood to buy is restrained anyway. Finding a buyer other than Genting is a difficult task in Morgen’s assessment, but Genting is in financial trouble itself. For a completion of Global dream around 600 million euros are still needed.
The question is what will happen to the ship if no buyer is found. “It could theoretically happen that the banks, which are lenders, can access the ship from their collateral,” says Christopher Kranz, lawyer for restructuring and insolvency at Simmons & Simmons, “but the question would be what they want with it. That Ship has no value until it is built.” It would also be possible to transfer the ship and the shipyard to a new owner – but then he would also have a huge steel structure in his possession that nobody wants.
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania does not have to pay out a 78 million euro loan for the time being
It is also questionable whether the new owners of the shipyards actually want to continue with shipbuilding. Selling MV Werften in a complete package to new interested parties is unlikely, agrees Morgen. Due to the foreseeable bankruptcy, the city of Stralsund has been working on ideas for a long time and wants to build a business park on the site. Even before the bankruptcy, there are said to have been talks with Genting. Mayor Alexander Badrow was able to convince the citizens of his plans last year. Nordic Yards, which owned the shipyards until 2016, has shown interest in having offshore wind power platforms built again at the Stralsund and Rostock sites.
At least the approximately 1,900 employees at the three locations were able to breathe a sigh of relief on Monday, and the December salaries have now been paid out. And the district court of Schwerin also had something to announce: the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania does not have to pay out a 78 million euro loan to Genting for the time being. This was granted in June 2021 due to a liquidity gap forecast for 2024/2025. But the owner wanted to obtain the money by means of an injunction, which would have required an existential emergency – but the group could not adequately explain this, the reasoning said. Genting can appeal the decision further.