Foschi resigns all positions at Carnival Corp & plc group

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Written by Teijo Niemelä Teijo Niemelä

Category: Top Headlines Top Headlines

Published: 09 January 2014 09 January 2014

Pier Luigi Foschi, member of the Boards of Directors of Carnival Corporation & plc Chairman of Costa Crociere, S.p.A. and Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Carnival Asia, a division of Carnival plc, said on January 6, 2014 that he will be retiring from the Boards of Directors effective immediately and from employment with the companies at the end of the financial year, which concluded 30 November 2013, Carnival Corp & plc said in a statement .

The companies concerned have entered into a Mutual Separation and Settlement Agreement with Foschi, which provides for, among other things, non-competition, non-solicitation, and confidentiality covenants as well as a general waiver of claims against Carnival, its affiliates, officers and directors by Foschi. Carnival Corporation will pay Foschi €1,000,000 in consideration for his waiver of claims and €250,000 in consideration for the non-competition and non-solicitations obligations provided for in the Settlement Agreement.

Scandlines turns to other yards for quotes as STX Finland fails to arrange working capital

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Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen

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Published: 04 January 2014 04 January 2014

Scandlines, the Danish-German ferry company controlled by the London based private equity group 3i, has asked quotes from a number of European yards for two large short haul ferries as STX Finland, with whom it has an initial contract from July, had failed to arrange working capital to build the planned ships, Finnish media reports say.

Anette Ustrup Svendsen, head of corporate communications at Scandlines, told the Turun Sanomat daily that the company has made an offer to acquire two ferries built at a shipyard in Stralsund in Germany that were due to enter service with Scandlines as Copenhagen and Berlin, but which it refused to accept due to their excessive weight and consequently lower than contracted deadweight tonnage. The shipyard went bankrupt as a result and the incomplete vessels and its other assets are in the hands of administrators.

The two ferries would need to be substantially modified before Scandlines could accept them, she told the Finnish daily, adding that the company has asked a few other European yards for quotes for two ferry newbuildings and that it hopes to receive the quotes as soon as possible.

STX Finland is not entirely out of the picture: "From the technical point of view, STX (FInland) would be the best option for us. However, we need to look at other optins too, because we are half a year behind schedule," she concluded.

The situation in Finland took an acute turn for the worse in late November, when STX Finland said that talks with Scandlines to finalise the order agreed in principle in July had been terminated as financial details could not be put in place on time.

Media reports in Finland have suggested that tumbling block was a weak balance sheet of STX Finland, which had prevented Finnvera, the Finnish state guarantee institution, from issuing guarantees of construction time loans to STX Finland.