Genting Hong Kong bites losses for expected future gain

Genting Dream

Genting Hong Kong has reported a loss of US$203.2 million in 1H2017, which it attributes mainly to the startup of new cruise brands and the MV Werften Shipyard readying for steel cutting two large ships in March 2018.

For the same period, it posted a total comprehensive income of US$165.1 million.

The group says the market has responded well to the Genting Dream (pictured)

“We are pleased with the market reception of the Genting Dream, (the company’s) first new-build ship in nearly 20 years. After a six-month startup period… Genting Dream achieved profitability standards comparable to global industry standards in the first seven weeks of 3Q2017,”said Lim Kok Thay, chairman and chief executive of Genting Hong Kong.

The World Dream arriving this November will replace the Genting Dream in the Pearl Delta. Genting expects the latter will homeport in Singapore with “much faster market acceptance” as travel agents and passengers have experienced Dream Cruises at the Pearl Delta homeport.

Cruise ship demand and supply growth of about six to seven per cent a year were generally in balance for the last 25 years. For China this decade, the demand for cruise ships has exceeded supply, with a historic high order book with deliveries announced as far as 2026.

“With the unavailability of slots for large cruise ships for nearly the next decade, we have taken the strategic step of buying MV Werften shipyards in order to build ships for our three cruise brands,” said Colin Au, group president of Genting Hong Kong.

“After delivering our first of four Rhine Class river ship this month, we are now focused on building the first 20,000 gross tonne Endeavor Class cruise ship by late 2019 and the first 204,000 gross tonne Global Class ship by late 2020 with steel cutting of the two planned for March next year”, he added.

Meanwhile, with the arrival of the Genting Dream in Singapore, SuperStar Gemini will move from Singapore to her new homeport in Bangkok. The SuperStar Libra will be repositioned to the homeport in Port Klang, while Star Cruise and Dream Cruise brands will have homeports and destinations across entire East Asia, including China, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam.

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