Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd (RCL) is pulling the plug on its SkySea Cruise Line joint venture with Chinese state-owned vacation giant Ctrip.
SkySea’s only vessel, the 72,000-gt Golden Era (ex-Celebrity Century, built 1995), will be offloaded to TUI’s Marella Cruises, with delivery expected in December 2018.
“After the sale of Golden Era, it is expected that SkySea will wind down its business operations before the end of 2018,” RCL said.
“The companies expect that favorable business conditions in China and elsewhere will allow them to absorb most SkySea employees into available positions at RCL and Ctrip.”
RCL said it will continue to serve the Chinese market through its Royal Caribbean International brand which it described as “the largest fleet deployment in the region”
RCL said it expects the impact of the transactions to fall in a range of $0.12 to $0.15 a share in the 2018 financial year.
SkySea Cruises was launched in early 2015 with RCL and Ctrip holding a stake of 35% each with the balance being owned by SkySea management and an unnamed private equity fund.
The move followed hot on the heels of rival Carnival Corp’s partnerships with Chinese state shipbuilder CSSC and Italy’s Fincantieri to develop vessels for the Chinese market.
At the time of its launch RCL said SkySea Cruises represented an “important strategic milestone” in its expansion efforts in the Chinese market.
