Germany’s bank consortium KfW IPEX-Bank is looking to finance two cruise ships being built for Genting Hong Kong and its brand Dream Cruises.
The Global Class I and II ships are currently under construction at the three shipyards of MV Werften located on the Baltic Coast in the German federal state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
The financing package comprises around EUR 2.6 billion (USD 2.88 billion) with a total investment volume of just under EUR 3.1 billion. The bank explained that the structure would be backed by export credit guarantees of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Finnish export credit agency Finnvera, as well as by a guarantee from the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
A substantial portion of the loan amount will be syndicated to more than 10 other German and international banks, besides the KfW IPEX-Bank consortium that includes BNP Paribas, Citibank, Crédit Agricole, Credit Suisse and DNB.
“Due to unavailability of cruise ship slots in the next 10 years, we made a conscious decision to invest in MV Werften in order to build the ships we needed for our three cruise brands in a timely manner,” Tan Sri Lim, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Genting Hong Kong Ltd, said.
With a capacity of up to 9,500 passengers and 2,500 crew, the Global Class ships are designed for the growing Asian cruise market. The ships are 204,000 gross tonnes each, with 2,500 cabins and 5,000 lower berths.
The Global Class ships will be the largest cruise ships ever built in Germany and the world’s largest cruise ships in terms of passenger capacity. Delivery of the units is scheduled for early 2021 and early 2022.