Creditors agree to $271 million emergency cash injection to STX Shipbuilding & Offshore

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Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen

Category: Top Headlines Top Headlines

Published: 13 June 2013 13 June 2013

Creditors agreed on Tuesday on an emergency cash injection of $271 million for the holding company of South Korea's troubled STX shipbuilding group to avert bankruptcy, a leading creditor bank was quoted as saying.

 “The state-run Korea Development Bank (KDB) said STX Corp would receive a total of KRW300 billion ($271 million) from its five main creditors,” Channel News Asia reports.

 STX Shipbulding & Offshore owns in full STX Finland via its Norway based STX Europe subsidiary that also controls 64% of the shares in STX France. Both companies are major builders of passenger tonnage and the STX group has put them on sale as part of major restructuring announced earlier this year.

STX Shipbuilding & Offshore has more than KRW1trillion in debt that will mature this year, reports say.

The STX group tried to sell its STX Pan Ocean bulk shipping unit, but as no bidders emerged the cash strapped company collapsed a few weeks ago.

Perception of top cruise brands continues US decline post Carnival Triumph - poll

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Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen

Category: Top Headlines Top Headlines

Published: 10 June 2013 10 June 2013

The US public’s perception of the cruise industry’s positive attributes has continued to decline after the immediate aftermath of the Carnival Triumph incident, a Harris Interactive poll conducted in May has shown

“A March Harris Poll found that Quality, Trust and Purchase Intent scores recorded in the week immediately following the Carnival Triumph's return to shore ("Post") showed notable drops when compared to scores recorded prior to the incident ("Pre") - not just for Carnival, but across many top cruise brands,” the company said in a statement.

“Many suggested at the time that these drops were likely a temporary setback, and that perceptions would soon bounce back. However, a recent Harris Poll of 2,052 U.S. adults surveyed online between May 14 and 16, 2013 (prior to the recent fire aboard Royal Caribbean's Grandeur of the Seas) by Harris Interactive, finds that perceptions for the top cruise industry brands have not only remained below their pre incident levels, but have continued to decline,” it said

Results are compared, where applicable, to Harris Poll EquiTrend data collected from January 11, 2013 to February 8, 2013 (the Carnival Triumph incident lasted from February 10-14, 2013) and a Harris Poll of 2,230 U.S. adults surveyed online between February 19 and 21, 2013.

Looking at specific perceptual measures, the average perceived Quality score across the seven brands tested is down by 13% vs. its pre incident level and 6% compared to the post incident wave of testing. While Carnival's Quality score shows the steepest declines (down 28% vs. pre and 12% vs. post), all of the other brands tested ranged individually from 8%-11% below pre levels.

The average Trust score across the seven brands tested is also down in comparison to both pre (down 12%) and post (down 5%) incident; as with Quality, Trust shows the steepest decline for Carnival Cruise Lines (down 26% vs. pre, 11% vs. post). However, the six other brands tested remain between 8%-12% below pre incident Trust levels.

Purchase Intent has declined, on average, 11% from its pre incident level (and 5% from its post incident level). While this again affects most of the brands tested (with most down between 7%-15% vs. pre levels), it is worth noting that Holland America's Purchase Intent score has largely weathered this perceptual storm, holding at just 2% below its pre level. Carnival is again hardest hit, down 20% vs. pre, 8% vs. post, Harris Interactive said.