Even before P&O Cruises Australia’s announcement on Monday this week that Pacific Dawn was leaving the fleet, there has been considerable speculation for some time about the future of both Pacific Dawn and Pacific Aria, both of which had been sold to join the CMV fleet before COVID-19, but were not joining CMV for some time.
The reason I say “sold to join the CMV fleet” is that there is also considerable conjecture and confusing regarding who actually owns the ships that CMV had been sailing and also who had actually “bought” or now as we know “not bought” Pacific Dawn and Pacific Aria as a result of the demise of CMV, which was actually only a sales and marketing company and not a ship ownership and operation company.
So, who owned and operated CMV’s ships?
Well, it appears that CMV’s ships were owned and operated by separate companies under the umbrella of Greece based Global Maritime Group, which started up in 2009 when another cruise compony went bust.
What is confusing is that in June this year, five of as reported “CMV’s ships” were detained by the UK’s Maritime and Coastguard Agency, with also reports saying that the company was seeking additional funding, but when that could not be secured, CMV was placed in administration.
It is presumed that the additional funding attempts were by CMV to keep that company going and paying the lease and charter cost of the vessels and other funds owed to creditors.
So, it appears that five of the ships were owned by Global and a sixth was under a long-term charter, were impounded, with creditors listed not apparently including Global Maritime Group, but ranged from the mortgage holders and it is not known who they were, but the list included Carnival Corporation, presumable for ships not paid for previously and also unpaid fuel bills and wages.
Equally interesting is that the creditors petitioned the UK High Court and the court ordered the cruise ships sold to settle the debts, but CMV did not own the ships – check this out:-
Astoria is owned by Islands Cruises Transportes care of manager Sociedade de Consultores Maritimos Lda (SCMA), of Lisbon, Portugal. ISM manager is Global Cruise Lines Ltd of Athens, Greece.
Vasco Da Gama is owned by Mythic Cruises Ltd care of manager Global Cruise Lines Ltd of Athens, Greece.
Astor is owned by Passion Shipping & Investment care of manager Global Cruise Lines Ltd of Athens, Greece.
Columbus is owned by Lyric Cruise Ltd care of manager Global Cruise Ltd of Athens, Greece.
Marco Polo is owned by Story Cruise Ltd care of manager Global Cruise Lines of Athens, Greece.
Where it all went wrong is that Barclays Bank decided not to offer a £25m state-backed loan under the Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CLBILS) and with Carnival Corporation said to be among CMV’s creditors, CMV borrowed about €60m from Australian Bank Macquarie in February and reportedly Macquarie had provided further support to the company by waiving interest payments and advancing additional funds to support salary payments to crew, as well as repatriation efforts.
So, the vessels are being sold independently in a sealed bid auction, with Vasco da Gama, ex Carnival Corporation on October 8, Columbus, ex Carnival Corporation on October 12 and the Magellan, ex Carnival Corporation on October 19. The Astor, not ex Carnival Corporation will be sold on October 15 and Marco Polo, not ex Carnival Corporation on October 22.
What is even more interesting and even confusing is that according to a report in Maritime-Executive depending on the pricing, even though Carnival Corporation is divesting itself of 18 vessels, many observers predict that Carnival Corporation may actually be a bidder for the three ships, Vasco da Gama, Columbus, and Magellan, due to the outstanding financing it provided to Global for the acquisitions. Mmm, for that I think it may be appropriate to read into that these vessels may have been “unpaid for”!
So, with the incomplete and now aborted sale of Pacific Dawn and Pacific Aria, presumably to one of the myriad of separate companies under the umbrella of Greece based Global Maritime Group, Lyndsey Gordon of P&O Australia was unable to tell me what the destiny of either ship is, except that according to P&O Australia President Sture Myrmell, Pacific Dawn had been sold, with the ship’s departure brought forward after reaching an agreement to sell the ship, but Lyndsey would not be drawn whether that was to a ship operator or to scrap, but said she would keep me informed.
Earlier this year, both ships had left Australia and after CMV’s demise rather than heading for somewhere to be laid up both headed towards the Middle East and transited the Suez Canal, with Pacific Dawn now as of today, headed towards Limassol in Cyprus to join the Pacific Aria already anchored off the cost of Limassol.
So, what does that mean? Who knows! We shall simply have to wait and see!
A report by John Alwyn-Jones
.jpg){kind=tracking}