The senior management team of now-defunct Cruise & Maritime Voyages (CMV) have launched a new cruise company, backed by a private-equity firm that has previously invested in shipping.
Ambassador Cruise Line has been founded by chief executive Christian Verhounig, alongside chief commercial officer Christopher Coates, chief information officer Gary Hides and chief financial officer Simon Weeks. All are reprising the roles they all held at CMV.
Greece-based Verhounig told TradeWinds that a shared belief in the future of the cruise industry led to CMV's former management team collaborating in the new venture.
"We have a very strong belief in the cruise industry and are convinced the cruise market will over time get back to pre-Covid numbers, albeit slower for most of the operators and quicker for operators such as us concentrating on the 'silver market'," he said.
Ambassador will target the UK market, particularly the over 50s, a demographic that has the fastest growth in disposable income and that will make up almost 40% of the population by 2028, he said.
Passenger numbers had a compound annual growth rate of about 6% between 2001 and 2019, weathering the global financial crisis of 2008, among other crises, he added.
CMV collapsed in July after the coronavirus pandemic forced it to halt operations, resulting in the arrest and auction of the operator's six cruiseships.
All but one of CMV's former fleet was chartered from Global Maritime Group of Greece, whose principals were believed to be major CMV shareholders.
The ship with nine lives
Ambassador will operate a cruiseship that came close to becoming floating cryptocurrency community in Panama and then narrowly avoided meeting the ship-breaker's torch last year.
The 70,300-gt cruiseship Ambience (ex-Satoshi, built 1991) was bought in March for around $12m by Wake Asset, a British Virgin Islands-registered single-ship entity that at the time was believed to be backed by Greek interests.
Wake Asset is owned by the same shareholders as Ambassador, Verhounig confirmed to TradeWinds.
Ambassador intends to upgrade the ship to meet "high environmental standards", he added.
"Because of the market condition in general, we also had the opportunity to acquire the vessel at a reasonable price and have been able to acquire her purely on an equity basis and are therefore the only cruise line in the world 'debt free'," Verhounig said.
The Ambience will begin its first cruise on 6 April 2022, when it sets sail on a short-break cruise to Hamburg from its home port of London Tilbury. Tickets go on sale in June.
Ambassador hopes to complete 33 sailings between April 2022 until May 2023.
Private equity backers
Ambassador is backed by private-equity firm Njord Partners, which hit the headlines last year when it won a $47.3m summary judgment against Tahir Lakhani for failure to repay outstanding loans.
Verhounig said he was introduced to Njord in March or April last year.
After the collapse of CMV, Verhounig set up an entity in the UK called CVI Group and reportedly bought assets from the old firm and its sister companies.
He reportedly acquired customer databases, booking systems and intellectual property, as well as cars and office furniture for about £180,000.
Filings with the UK's Companies House show that Verhounig no longer owns a majority stake in CVI Group and that Njord Partners has held more than 75% of the company since April.
Future acquisitions
Ambassador is already hunting to take on more vessels, Verhounig told TradeWinds.
"We have ambitious plans for growth and will look opportunistic at purchasing additional vessels for both the ex-UK no-fly cruise market, but also for other national source markets, as the one vessel will be sold out within weeks from launch," he said.
The Ambience was bought directly from Ocean Builders, the firm that had planned to use the vessel as a floating cryptocurrency community in Panama, Verhounig confirmed.
Ocean Builders bought the ship from Carnival Corp subsidiary P&O Australia in October for around $9.5m and christened it Satoshi, after the smallest Bitcoin unit.
The company wanted to turn the elderly 'CryptoShip' into a 777-unit condo complex, but the plan was blocked in December by the International Group of P&I Clubs, as TradeWinds reported at the time.
In December, Ocean Builders sold the ship for recycling in India but the deal fell through after the Satoshi was arrested in Colon, Panama, over payment disputes.
