The struggling owner of the insolvent MV shipyards, the cruise company Genting Hong Kong, is dissolving.

The company announced on Wednesday that it had applied to the Bermuda Supreme Court to have the company dissolved.

Three lawyers have been appointed in Hong Kong and Bermuda to oversee Genting's debt restructuring process.

The share has been suspended from trading indefinitely for the second time.

When trading resumed for the first time last week, the price immediately fell 56 percent.

Christopher Hein

Business correspondent for South Asia/Pacific based in Singapore.

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In a statement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange from the Chairman of the Board of Directors, Malaysian billionaire Lim Kok Thay, the company believes that it has made all reasonable efforts to negotiate with relevant counterparties under existing agreements. Despite these efforts and lengthy negotiations with creditors, no final agreement on an "amicable and unconditional" restructuring was reached.

Lim and his family own 75.5 percent of Genting Hong Kong.

His father owned the Malaysian gaming and tourism group Genting Bhd.

founded in 1965, in which the family still owns 43 percent.

Genting Hong Kong, which has its legal seat in Bermuda, now has "no access to further liquidity," it said.

According to Genting's predictions, the cash should be depleted "by the end of January or around the end of January".

The reasons for this are, on the one hand, additional operating costs and, on the other hand, "expected payments for certain liabilities that are due at this time".

One continues to hope for “a moratorium on creditors”.

Lim had already written last week: "The counterparties have not met their contractual obligations," meaning the Germans, from whom he expected a cash injection.

Money from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania does not come

On Monday, the district court in Schwerin rejected an urgent application from Genting for immediate payment of a loan from the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania to MV Werften. The group was unable to explain an existential emergency in a comprehensible manner, so the reasoning. The state government of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania saw its skepticism confirmed that the loan of 78 million euros would not have been enough to prevent the development. "The state was prepared to pay out the loan intended for a different situation to Genting as part of an overall solution for the MV shipyards," explained Economics Minister Reinhard Meyer and Finance Minister Heiko Geue. However, it is now in the interest of the taxpayer that the country has resisted paying out the money in insolvency proceedings.

Some of the company's activities are to be continued - Dream Cruises being mentioned by name. The other two cruise brands – Star Cruises and Crystal Cruises, which work out of Miami – are not mentioned by name, nor are the German shipyards. "Nonetheless, the majority of the group's operations are expected to cease operations," the company wrote. In May, Genting Hong Kong reported a loss of $1.7 billion for the Corona year 2020. The Malaysians have already warned that other companies would also be hit hard in the event of a collapse, with a total loss of $2.78 billion.

The Asian group, which offers cruises and gambling, among other things, has gotten into trouble as a result of the pandemic. This also affects its subsidiary MV Werften in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, where Genting had cruise ships built for its own needs. It is unclear what consequences Genting's application for liquidation could have for the shipyards and the hoped-for completion of the world's largest cruise ship "Global Dream" - just as a liquidation could actually take place.

Insolvency was filed for the MV shipyards with around 2,000 employees last Monday.

According to his spokesman, the preliminary insolvency administrator of MV Werften, Christoph Morgen, last spoke to top representatives from Genting on Friday.

The administrator then reported that the atmosphere was good and constructive.

Financing solutions will be sought.

Further talks are planned.