Genting Hong Kong revealed the completion of the acquisition of Nordic Yards’ three shipyards in Stralsund, Wismar and Warnemunde, Germany for the consideration of EUR 230.6 million.
The deal will give GHK-Genting Hong Kong core expertise, manpower, fabrication capacity and covered drydocks to build a global cruise fleet for its three brands – Crystal Cruises, The World’s Most Awarded Luxury Cruise LineTM; Dream Cruises, Asia’s Most Luxury Cruise Line; and Star Cruises, Asia’s Leading Cruise Line.
The newly acquired yards, together with the previously purchased Lloyd Werft shipyard in Bremerhaven, will be managed as the Lloyd Werft Group, optimizing the strengths of each yard for design, fabrication, outfitting and final assembly using the two huge covered drydocks in Wismar and Warnemunde and one ship launching lift in Stralsund.
Ownership of the shipyards will free the Company from both the delivery timing and pricing uncertainties associated with the cruise ship order book cycle, which continues at historic highs and allows Genting Hong Kong management to focus on the strategic planning, design and deployment of the planned cruise ships among its three brands.
The three newly acquired shipyards, built originally at over one billion euros, are unique with covered drydocks and building halls, resulting in high labour productivity and completion quality as cruise ships can be constructed regardless of weather conditions. The Wismar shipyard’s drydock measures 340m long and 67m wide and the Warnemunde shipyard’s drydock measures 320m long and 54m wide and are capable of building cruise ships of 200,000 gross tons each, the prevailing size of the new generation of cruise ships currently being ordered. The Stralsund shipyard has covered shipbuilding fabrication halls and a ship lift to launch completed cruise ships and megayachts up to 270m long or about 50,000 gross tons each.
The company will further invest about 100 million euros in thin steel fabrication facilities, cabin module factory and other improvements and, together with the existing production capacity in the three yards, will be able to build two mega cruise ships and a mid-size cruise ship or megayacht a year by the next decade. All of the yards are situated in close proximity in Germany, a country with a long tradition of building high quality and innovative cruise ships and the Lloyd Werft Group will become one of the two largest cruise ship building groups in Germany and one of four in Europe and the world.