The High Court of Singapore finally concluded a protracted auction process for the last ship owned by failed Asian cruise operator GHK-Genting Hong Kong.
The Sheriff of Singapore’s office listed the 150,700 GT World Dream (2017-built) as sold on Friday, February 24th, 2 months after a sealed tender auction for the vessel was held.
DNV, under whom the ship is classed, shows a change in the technical manager in its database. The vessel was managed by V.Ships Leisure during the cold lay-up (after the ship arrest by KfW IPEX-Bank back in March 2022). However, on Wednesday, March 1st, DNV listed Columbia Cruise Services as the manager and World Dream Company Inc. as the registered owner.
GHK’s Dream Cruises owned the ship via its subsidiary World Dream Ltd.
Since February 2023, the ship is owned by Cruise Saudi (2021-founded, Jeddah-based tourism business) and a fully-owned subsidiary of PIF (Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund/1971-founded). Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund is one of the world's top-5 largest by AUM/assets under management (~USD 620 billion / GBP 514 B).
The new shipowner is PIF's subsidiary World Dream Company Inc (2023-founded).
World Dream's sale completes the liquidation process of GHK’s vessel assets. The 150,700 GT Genting Dream (built in 2016), which Genting sold to a consortium of Chinese banks for US$700 million in a sale and leaseback deal in January 2020; and the 75,300 GT Explorer Dream (Resort World One, built in 1999), are operated by Resorts World Cruises, a company established in April 2022 by Genting majority shareholder Lim Kok Thay.