Last night, Genting Hong Kong, the parent company of Crystal Cruises, Star Cruises and Dream Cruises, filed a "Wind Up" petition (essentially a bankruptcy petition) with the Supreme Court of Bermuda, asking the court to appoint provisional liquidators. The filing stated that Genting Hong Kong, which also has other holdings, would run out of cash by the end of January 2022.
Genting Hong Kong requested that the Bermuda court, do the following:
- Facilitate and assist the company in developing and proposing a restructuring of the group’s financial indebtedness “to allow the company to continue as a going concern,” to make a compromise or agreement with the creditors, or alternatively, or,
- Authorize the company to "dispose of all assets” with a view to maximizing shareholder value and returns.
“This was an extremely difficult decision but a prudent one given the current business environment and recent developments with our parent company, Genting Hong Kong,” said Jack Anderson, Crystal’s president. “Crystal has been synonymous with luxury cruising for more than 30 years and we look forward to welcoming back our valued guests when we resume operations. We wish to thank our guests and travel advisors for their incredible support during these ongoing challenging times.”
Exhausted All Reasonable Efforts
In its filing application to the court, Genting Hong Kong said it had “exhausted all reasonable efforts to negotiate” with creditors and that the company has no further access to additional liquidity.
While the filing did say that “certain business activities of the group, including but not limited to the operations of cruise lines by Dream Cruise Holdings, shall continue to protect and preserve core assets,” it continued: “however, it is anticipated that the majority of the group’s existing operations will cease to exist.”
Stock Trading Halted
Trading of shares of the company’s stock on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange was halted earlier this week.
Headquartered in Hong Kong, Genting Hong Kong is global leisure, entertainment and hospitality enterprise, with both land and sea businesses. Genting Cruise Lines is comprised of Star Cruises, Dream Cruises, and Crystal Cruises, along with German shipyards MV Werften and Lloyd Werft, and Resorts World Manila, an associate of the company.
The shipyard business has been a thorn in the company’s side this year due to financial issues at both yards. Genting Hong Kong recently asked a German court to force the government (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern state) to pay a backstop loan, warning that was needed to allow it to meet its financial obligations.
Both shipyards are now insolvent and earlier this week, the German court ruled against Genting on its loan demand. That triggered many other financial events, resulting in the "wind up" filing of last night.
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