By
Rebecca Gibson |
Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd (RCL) is to sell Celebrity Century to Exquisite Marine, a holding company led by Chinese travel service provider Ctrip.com International.
The sale of Celebrity Century, which has been operated by RCL’s subsidiary Celebrity Cruises since December 1995, will result in a non-cash loss of around US$20 million. This loss will be excluded from RCL’s adjusted net income in its third quarter results.
“Since her inaugural sailing, Celebrity Century has created many wonderful memories for hundreds of thousands of guests and we expect this successful history to continue as she transitions to the Chinese cruise market,” said Richard Fain, chairman and CEO of RCL. “The vessel’s sale is an excellent business opportunity for both Royal Caribbean and Ctrip, and will generate strong value for both companies’ shareholders.”
Built at Meyer Werft’s Papenburg yard in Germany, the 1,814-guest Celebrity Century will remain as part of the Celebrity fleet to complete her scheduled sailings until 22 March 2015.
The 71, 545gt vessel’s 15-night Dubai to Rome sailing on 5 April will be redeployed to a 14-night sailing from Dubai to Singapore. Guests with affected individual bookings and named group bookings on Celebrity Century’s original itinerary can either cancel their booking and receive a full refund, or move to an alternative sailing and receive re-accommodation onboard credit, as well as compensation to cover air change fees. All guests with reservations affected by the transition will be contacted by Celebrity.