Germany: Disney Buys MV Cruise Ship and Commissions Meyer Werft with Its Completion

MV Werften, who was employer of around 2,000 staff members at its sites in Wismar, Rostock and Stralsund, filed for insolvency in early January this year. No solution had previously been found with the owner of the shipyard group, the conglomerate Genting Hong Kong, regarding further financing of the company. In the meantime, the managing director of Genting, which is listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange, had left the company. After various interested parties were found, the insolvency administrator had sold the shipyard sites to new owners – the one in Wismar was taken over by ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS), which plans to start building submarines there in 2024. Most of the former employees of the MV shipyards were transferred to a transfer company, which most recently still comprised around 900 employees – for many of them, a new perspective is now emerging.

As recently announced, Disney is taking over the unfinished “Global Dream” cruise ship from the insolvency estate of MV Werften in order to have the ship completed by the MEYER Group in Wismar for Disney Cruise Line. Hundreds of former MV Werften employees are to be taken on for this purpose. In 2025, the ship, which is now to be completely restructured once again and equipped with innovative, environmentally friendly technologies, is to set sail. Three of Disney Cruise Line’s cruise ships, including the newest fleet member, the “Disney Wish”, were built by MEYER WERFT. Two sister ships are scheduled to be handed over at their construction site in Papenburg in 2024 and 2025. But what is currently a positive development for insolvency administrators and employees in the takeover of the Global Dream by Disney could soon become expensive “fun” for German taxpayers. This is because the federal and state governments had guaranteed millions of euros in guarantees for loans for the completion of the ship, which could now become due quite soon. (eap)