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CBR Odo Commentary - Curtain descends on German one ship operators

Details: Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen; Category: Top Headlines Top Headlines; Published: 03 January 2015 03 January 2015

Peter Deilmann Reederi, operator of the luxury market cruise liner Deutschland became the third one ship cruise operator in Germany to go out of business in the past 18 months. Both cost and revenue related matters have led to their demise.

In brief, a one ship operation means that all shore based expenses are related to the one ship only; it does not require double the number of office staff to run two vessels instead of two or three.

One ship can only be in one place at a time. This severely limits itinerary planning and it has been particularly damaging to the three German companies in particular as they have been destination-focused operators.

Expansion of larger companies, such as TUI Cruises and Aida Cruises, parts of the Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (RCCL) and Carnival Corp & plc group respectively, has furher added to the woes of the one ship operators by drawing customer focus on larger, modern ships.

The two other companies that left the scene Ambient Kreuzfahrten in Berlin, which introduced the Portuguese owned Azores on the German market. However, sales targets were not met and the company was forced to close its doors, and Passat Kreuzfahrten, whose mid-1970s built Delfin also failed to generate enough revenues to keep the operator afloat.

Deilmann's Deutschland was built in 1998 and it targets the affluent, upper end of the German market. Unfortunately, the ship only has rather few balcony cabins, which puts it in a disadvantage in competition with other vessels aimed at the same market segment.

Deilmann's problems came to the surface in the summer, when its joint managing directors resigned after reporting that the planned sales targets for 2014 would not be met. In the autumn, MS „Deutschland“ Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, which owns the ship, sought debt restructuring under court protection, but these attempts ultimately failed.

The ship was put up for sale in the autumn and according to Suddeutsche Zeitung, the Munich based daily, only one strategic potential buyer emerged. This was FTI, the Munich based tour operator, which reportedly offered €1 for the ship. However, the report did not say whether FTI would have assumed liabilities of the ship owning company, which amount to about €60 million, in the process.

FTI already operates the 9,870 gross ton Berlin - which started life as a Deilmann ship in 1980 - and it is one of the very few remaining one ship cruise operators in Germany. The cruise ship business is, however, only part of its wider tour operation activity.

Transocean Cruises, now part of the UK based Cruise & Maritime Voyages (CMV) group, operates the 20,606 gross ton Astor on the German market for about six months per year. However, CMV that will soon have seven ships operates the vessel in Australia and the UK for the rest part of each year.

Court opens MS Deutschland and Peter Deilmann bankruptcy proceedings

Details: Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen; Category: Top Headlines Top Headlines; Published: 03 January 2015 03 January 2015

A court in Eutin in Germany has started bankruptcy proceedings of MS „Deutschland“ Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, which owns the 22,496 gross ton cruise liner Deutschland and Peter Deilmann Reederei, the company that has operated the vessel, Deilmann said in a statement.

Meanwhile a world cruise of Deutschland that was due to operate from 18 December 2014 to 1 May 2015 had been cancelled in the absence of a buyer for the vessel that would have provided working capital for the cruise to take place, the company said in a separate statement on 27 November.

Liabilities of the ship owning company amount to about €60 million and those of the operator to about €2 million. The companies have about 1,500 creditors and the first meeting of them will take place on 20 February at the Eutin court house, Deilmann said.

Update 3: Ten dead on Norman Atlantic, actual figure could be higher - report

Details: Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen; Category: Top Headlines Top Headlines; Published: 28 December 2014 28 December 2014

UPDATE 3:

Ten people have been confirmed dead as a result of the fire that swept the Italian ropax ferry Norman Atlantic in the Adriatic, but the actual figure could be higher as the ship’s manifest does not seem to have been accurate, media reports say.

“A 33-hour-long operation to save almost 500 passengers and crew from the stricken Norman Atlantic ferry wrapped up on Monday night amid fears that the final death toll could prove much higher than the ten fatalities confirmed by the Italian and Greek coastguards,” the Guardian newspaper in London reported on its website.

“Italy’s defence minister, Roberta Pinotti, said 427 people had been rescued from the ship, which caught fire early on Sunday. The manifest contained 478 names, apparently leaving 43 unaccounted for.”

“Maurizio Lupi, the Italian transport minister, said several of the people who were saved did not figure on the list, suggesting even more could have died. Prosecutors who opened two inquiries into the disaster in the ports of Brindisi and Bari were reportedly putting the number of missing at 38,” the Guardian said.

UPDATE 2:

The death toll in the fire on Norman Atlantic has risen to seven. All persons have now been rescueed from the ship, the BBC reports.

UPDATE 1:

The number of deaths on the Norman Atlantic ferry that caught fire in the Adriatic early on Sunday morning has risen to five from one, media reports say.

“Five people were confirmed to have died in car ferry that caught fire off the coast of Greece and rescue teams were working to save another 22 still stranded on board more than 24 hours after the blaze started,” the Reuters news agency reports.

The ship flies the Italian flag and it is on charter to ANEK Lines, a Greek ferry company.

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One person has died on Norman Atlantic, the ropax ferry that caught fire last night on a voyage from Italy to Greece, media reports say.

Meanwhile, the ship had six defects at a port state control inspection that took place on 19 December. These included a malfunctioning fire door, missing emergency lighting batteries, a water tight door that was not as required and two defects with regards of life saving information, the Paris MOU says on its website (parismou.org).

The Paris MOU is the European body that carries out port state control to inspect vessels’ safety equipment and other safety related matters.

Normamn Arlantic flies the Italian flag and is managed by Visemar di navigazione, accroding to imnformation on the Paris MOU website. The ship has been chartered to ANEK Lines, a major listed Greek ferry company.

Resue effort under way as Norman Atlantic ferry catches fire in Adriatic

Details: Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen; Category: Top Headlines Top Headlines; Published: 28 December 2014 28 December 2014

A rescue effort is on the way after an Italian flag ropax ferry had caught fire in the Adriatic in the night during a voyage from Greece to Italy, media reports say.

“The Norman Atlantic car ferry was just over 40 miles northwest of Corfu when it sent out a distress signal to the Greek coast guard. The fire broke out in the lower deck garage of the vessel, Italian officials have said, at around 4.30am local time (2.30am GMT),” the Independent newspaper in London reported on its website..

“It was unclear whether there had been casualties or if any passengers were in the water, though officials said wintry water temperatures would make survival in the sea difficult unless rescue came quickly,” the report said.

There are almost 500 people on board the ship, according to Reuters.

Norman Atlantic is of 26,904 gross tons and it was built by the Visentini shipyard in Italy in 2009. The ship is a standard design unit of a long series of ropax ferries built by the shipyard. Like many of the units of the series, it flies the Italian flag.

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. details impact of Insignia fire

Details: Written by Teijo Niemelä Teijo Niemelä; Category: Top Headlines Top Headlines; Published: 25 December 2014 25 December 2014

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. on Tuesday quantified the financial impact of the incident on board Oceania Cruises' Insignia.

On December 11, 2014, Insignia experienced a fire in the engine room while docked in St. Lucia during a ten-day voyage that departed San Juan, Puerto Rico on December 7, resulting in the cancellation of the remainder of the sailing. The vessel has been taken out of service and the Company anticipates repair efforts to take approximately nine weeks. The timing of the repairs results in the cancellation of a 24-day voyage which had been scheduled to depart Miami on December 17, 2014 along with the first three legs of Insignia's Around the World in 180 Days cruise, which was scheduled to depart Miami on January 10, 2015. This modified voyage will now commence on March 22, 2015 and depart from Singapore.

The financial impact on the fourth quarter of 2014 and the first quarter of 2015 is estimated to be a reduction in earnings of approximately $0.05 and $0.05 per share, net of insurance proceeds, respectively. The Company reiterates its prior full year 2014 Adjusted EPS guidance of $2.28 to $2.32. The guidance provided excluded the results of the acquisition of Prestige Cruises International, Inc., parent company of Oceania Cruises, which closed in the fourth quarter of 2014 and also excludes the financial impacts from this incident.

"The timing of repairs has unfortunately required the cancellation of Insignia's holiday voyage along with the modification of the world cruise," said Kevin Sheehan, president and chief executive officer of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. "We understand how disappointing this news must be to our valued guests and we extend our sincere appreciation for their cooperation and understanding."