Celebrity+Century-Exterior.jpg (Photo : www.telegraph.co.uk)
Exquisite Marine Ltd., a subsidiary company of Ctrip International Ltd., has entered into an agreement to acquire Celebrity Century, a 1,814-passenger cruise ship from Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.
The German-built 19-year-old Celebrity Century estimated selling price of $157 million, according to Cruise News. It will be officially transferred by Royal Caribbean to the Ctrip subsidiary in April 2015.
Until then, the ship will be completing its scheduled sailings throughout the March 22, 2015 itinerary. On April 5, 2015, it will be redeployed to Asia on a 14-night sailing from Dubai to Singapore.
Ctrip, a leading travel service provider of accommodation reservation, transportation ticketing, packaged tours, and corporate travel management in China, co-founded Exquisite Marine along with other investors to target Chinese customers with world-class and tailor-made cruise products.
According to Min Fan, vice chairman and president of Ctrip, the company has already sent over 120,000 guests to cruise trips so far and now accounts for 10-percent share of China's cruise market.
Aside from the purchase agreement, Ctrip announced that it has also entered into a memorandum of understanding with Royal Caribbean to form a joint venture which will manage the operation of Celebrity Century and "potentially to broaden the relationship."
Royal Caribbean confirmed to Cruise Critic that "we have agreed to a joint venture for management services for the ship. There is a pursuit of a further partnership, but the details of what that might look like are not firm at this time."
The Cruise Critic also gathered that the sale would result in a "non-cash loss of approximately $20 million dollars" on the part of Royal Caribbean.
Min Fan in a Ctrip press statement said: "We are thrilled about our acquisition of Celebrity Century, which is one of the top-tier vessels in the world."
The company will have the cruise ship renovated to provide an outstanding cruise experience to China's leisure travelers and upgrade hotel services to premium quality; provide more diversified dining options; install more exciting on-board facilities; and organize and set in place varieties of entertainments, excursions and tours programs and packages.
