KfW IPEX-Bank arrested the last operational cruise ship of Asian cruise company GHK-Genting Hong Kong within hours of tying up at Singapore's cruise terminal on Wednesday, March 2.
The German bank filed a mortgage claim against the 2017-built 150,700 GT World Dream vessel.
On Monday, Dream Cruises announced that World Dream would terminate her cruise operations when she returned to Singapore at the end of a voyage scheduled to end on March 2.
A statement on the operator’s website said that mounting creditor pressure had posed an immediate threat to the continued operation of the vessel. The company said that in spite of obtaining emergency funding that allowed World Dream to complete 16 scheduled sailings after her liquidation filing in January, her liquidity continued to deteriorate.
World Dream had been operating short cruises to nowhere from Singapore since late 2020. She is the 4th of Genting’s fleet of 17 liners that are known to have been placed under arrest. The 3 ships of the company’s US-based brand Crystal Cruises were arrested in early February 2022. Crystal Cruises filed for a winding down shortly afterward.
GHK’s joint provisional liquidators argued in recent weeks for the restructuring of Dream Cruises, considered the most valuable of the company’s cruise brands. They said on Monday that negotiations with creditors remained ongoing.