Salamis Lines has announced that a deal to sell its 15,400-gt cruiseship Salamis Filoxenia (built 1975) in a deal that would see it operated by Argentinian cruise start-up Pampa Cruises is dead in the water.
Pampa signed a memorandum of understanding to charter the veteran cruiseship in November from its new owner, and it was supposed to have taken delivery by 20 December.
On Friday Salamis announced to the Cyprus Stock Exchange that the sale had been cancelled as the buyer had failed to fulfil the relevant terms.
“The advance payment of $770,000 made by the buyers has been rightfully forfeited in favour of the company,” it said.
Pampa, which is fronted by South American cruise industry veteran Milton Sanches, planned to use the ship on year-round cruises out of Brazil. The company could not be reached for comment on Monday morning and details of the ship and its scheduled cruises have been removed from its website.
While the agreed purchase price has never been disclosed, Salamis said at the time that it would book a €3.95m ($4.5m) accounting gain from selling the vessel and planned to by another ship before its summer Eastern Mediterranean cruise season began in 2019.
This article has been amended since publication to reflect that Pampa was to be the charterer of the Salamis Filoxenia.
