The two largest cruise ships in the fleet of failed Genting Hong Kong subsidiary Crystal Cruises have been sold for a combined $128m at a Bahamas auction.

Unconfirmed reports have also began to emerge suggesting that Genting’s liquidators have sold Crystal’s 20,500-gt expedition cruise ship Crystal Endeavor (built 2021) to Royal Caribbean Group’s upmarket brand Silversea Cruises.

Industry sources believe the prices obtained for the 68,900-gt Crystal Serenity (built 2003) and 51,000-gt Crystal Symphony (built 1995) indicate a growing confidence in the future prospects of the cruise industry, where until recently ships of their vintage were being sold for further trading at not much more than their scrap value.

The Crystal Serenity was sold for $103m and the Crystal Symphony went for $25m, lawyers acting for creditor DNB Bank told the Bahamas’ Tribune newspaper on Wednesday.

VesselsValue had put a scrap value of $22.2m and a trading value of $87.4m on the Crystal Serenity and a scrap value of $17m and a trading value of only $18.2m on the Crystal Symphony when the pair were put up for sale via a sealed tender auction in late May.

Both vessels have been sold to what appears to be closely linked special purpose vehicles, with CSE Ltd the new owner of the Crystal Serenity and CSY Ltd the new owner of the Crystal Symphony.

The pair were handed over to their new owners on Wednesday, according to sources closely following the sale. TradeWinds was unable to ascertain who was behind the two special-purpose vehicles that acquired them but understands from market sources that there was strong interest shown in them by several existing cruise players.

Rumoured sale

While the sale of the Crystal Serenity and Crystal Symphony has been officially confirmed by the Bahamas’s admiralty marshal, strong rumours began circulating within the cruise sector this week that Royal Caribbean Group’s Silversea Cruises was buying the polar-class expedition cruise ship Crystal Endeavor, a ship that one cruise broker described to TradeWinds as “the best of its type out there”.

Completed in late 2021, the polar expedition cruise ship Crystal Endeavour was described by one broker as "the best of its type". Photo: Crystal Cruises

The Crystal Endeavor was delivered by Genting’s in-house shipbuilder MV Werften only months before the company collapsed, and is reportedly being sold via a court sanctioned extra-judicial sale in Gibraltar, where it is currently under arrest.

Silversea declined to comment on the reports.

Genting’s liquidators have moved swiftly in recent weeks to dispose of the failed cruise operator’s vessel assets, selling three medium-size cruise ships that were operated by the Star Cruises brand for recycling in India, and a small, upscale cruise ship to a German religious organization.

These sales leave Genting’s liquidators with arranging the disposal of the arrested 150,700-gt World Dream (built 2017) and the laid up 75,300-gt Explorer Dream (built 1999), which are in Asian waters, a handful of modern European river cruise ships that have been laid up in the Netherlands since Crystal shut down.

Similarly, the administrators of Genting’s collection of German shipyards are working fast to sell its shipyard assets including the MV Werften shipyard in Wismar, which as TradeWinds reported on Monday, has been sold to Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems.

However, the administrator is having a tough time finding a buyer for the nearly completed 201,000-gt newbuilding Global Dream.