One of collapsed cruise ship operator Genting Hong Kong’s flagship Asia-based cruise ships has been sold by liquidators in Singapore for US$330 million.
World Dream, launched in 2017 to serve the Asian market and with capacity for 5,000 passengers, was snapped up in late February by Cruise Saudi – a relative newcomer to the global cruising industry and financially backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. The ship, already renamed Manara, will now undergo a refit, Cruise Saudi confirmed.
World Dream, which had previously sailed under the Dream Cruises brand, was originally listed for auction in December following the collapse of Genting Hong Kong earlier in the year. With debts of almost US$3 billion, many of Genting Hong Kong’s assets have already been sold off including two ships in the Caribbean under its old Crystal Cruises brand to new owners and others under the Star Cruises brand for scrap.
Disney Cruise Line also confirmed recently the purchase of Global Dream – an unfinished 9,000 capacity ship that was being built by Genting Hong Kong at its Germany shipyards prior to its collapse.
Genting Hong Kong’s joint provisional liquidators are expected to confirm the sale of the company’s stake in Travellers International Hotel Group – operator of Manila’s Newport World Resorts – in the coming months.
However, none of this has stopped the majority owner of Genting Hong Kong, Genting Group Chairman and CEO Lim Kok Thay, from maintaining an interest in the cruise biz.
Having since launched a brand new cruise line called Resorts World Cruises (RWC), Lim revealed in January plans to start sailings out of Hong Kong using one of Genting Hong Kong’s former cruise ships, Explorer Dream, since rebranded as Resorts World One.
This is the second ship previously operated by Genting Hong Kong to have been leased back by RWC, with Genting Dream having begun sailings from Singapore and Malaysia in June 2022.
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