The empire is now collapsing like a house of cards: Anyone who wanted to book a “voyage to nowhere” in Singapore at the weekend via the Hong Kong Genting shipping company Dream Cruises website was put off: “No results”.

Meanwhile, the chairman of Genting Hong Kong's board of directors resigned on Monday.

Malaysian billionaire Lim Kok Thay resigned as his cruise company was declared bankrupt.

In America, prosecutors are already trying to chain one of the flagships.

And in Singapore, a supplier is stuck with his invoices.

Christopher Hein

Business correspondent for South Asia/Pacific based in Singapore.

  • Follow I follow

While the super-rich in Hong Kong are retreating, almost 2,000 people in the MV shipyard group in Germany are still worried about their jobs. They have built the “Global One”, also known as the “Global Dream”, three quarters of the way through for the shipping company from Genting Hong Kong. But who wants the giant ship for around ten thousand crusaders now? Although it was specially designed for Dream Cruises' Asian needs, the first interested parties are said to have reported, said Christoph Morgen, the insolvency administrator of the MV shipyards, in the middle of last week.

Meanwhile, the state press in Singapore, where Lim has massive investments, quotes bank managers who blame German politicians for the crisis: "The reason for the failure was that the Germans gave (Lim) Kok Thay a personal guarantee for the loans demanded, which was not part of the original plan," a "senior private equity executive familiar with the situation" was quoted as saying by Singapore's The Straits Times on Monday.

Consequential damage in the billions

Although a life's work is melting here, the message to the Hong Kong stock exchange, where Genting's shares remain suspended, sounds cool - the spokesman for the head of the family used the same sentence for his resignation as they did for the resignation of his son Lim Keong Hui at the end of August 2020 used: "There are no disagreements with the Board of Directors."

At the same time, Lim's right-hand man, Au Fook Yew, is retiring from his role as Deputy CEO of Genting Hong Kong. With a 76 percent stake, Lim Kok Thay is the largest shareholder in the shipping company, which includes Dream Cruises, Star Cruises and Miami-based Crystal Cruises. Lim has already warned that the collapse of the Hong Kong umbrella company is expected to result in consequential damages of $2.7 billion. Overall, Genting Hong Kong is said to have piled up a mountain of debt of 3.4 billion dollars - money that other companies lack to ensure their own survival in difficult times.

That's why the Americans want to put the snow-white Crystal Symphony on the chain as soon as it docks at the cruise quay in Miami.

So they want to secure $1.2 million in fuel bills against that ship alone.

The 27-year-old luxury cruiser was expected back in Florida on Saturday night;

Ship trackers, however, show that the luxury ship with 1,040 guests on board headed for Bimini in the Bahamas off the coast in good time, where the American judiciary has no access.