Genting Hong Kong’s Crystal Cruises has filed papers in a Florida court that will hand over assets to a court-appointed “assignee” who will wind down the company under an alternative bankruptcy measure.
The cruise ship owner is pursuing a procedure known as an assignment for the benefit of creditors, according to a petition filed in a state circuit court for Miami-Dade County.
The move is the latest development in the saga facing Crystal parent Genting Hong Kong, the cruise subsidiary of Malaysian leisure Genting Group that filed for liquidation in January.
A legal expert described the Florida procedure as an “effective bankruptcy” that is outside of US Bankruptcy Court but similar to Chapter 7 liquidation.
The petition was filed by Mark Healy, executive vice president at Florida liquidation firm Michael Moecker & Associates. It seeks to assign Crystal Cruises’ assets to Healy so that he can then pay off company debt.
“The assignor is indebted to creditors and is unable to pay its debts and through this assignment seeks to provide for the payment of its debts with its resources,” Healy’s lawyers at Orlando law firm Nardella & Nardella said in the petition.
The filing lists unsecured debt including nearly $803,000 in unpaid wages and $367,000 in payroll taxes, as well as consumer deposits, trade payables and office leases in Los Angeles and Miami.
But the biggest creditors are affiliates linked to the Genting Group. Star Cruises Management is owed nearly $8.99m, while hotel owner Resorts World Omni is owed about $1.14m, the filing shows.
Assets include $3m in bank deposits and inventory on eight Crystal vessels — three oceangoing cruise ships and five river vessels.
Not listed as assets to be liquidated in the Florida proceedings are those ships, which are all listed in Equasis as owned by other outfits.
Michael Moecker & Associates, which could not be immediately reached for this story, considers itself a leading player in assignments for the benefit of creditors, known as ABCs.
“This efficient technique may be used to help them avoid the negative aspects of bankruptcy,” the firm says on its website.
The move into ABC proceedings comes after it emerged that Crystal Cruises, which is headquartered in Miami but registered in California, was permanently shut down.
