The Italian shipyard Fincantieri has announced that its subsidiary Vard Holdings Limited ( "VARD") - Norwegian company active in the design and construction of offshore vessels and special ships - signed an historic memorandum of understanding with the French owner PONANT, a company controlled by the Artemis group (holding company of the Pinault family), for the construction of four ships from cruise luxury small. The agreement, subject to various conditions, including the shipowner funding, marks the entry of VARD in the cruise segment.
The four units, which will be realized by the production network of VARD group, will have a length of 128 meters, a width of 18 and a gross tonnage of about 10,000 tons. They can reach speeds of 15 knots and accommodate 180 passengers (in 92 cabins) and 110 crew members. Deliveries are scheduled in Norway in the summer of 2018 and that of 2019.
They will be built using the most advanced technologies in terms of environmental protection and because of the small size can reach ports and destinations which are inaccessible to larger vessels. The layout of the interior will be designed "on a human scale" and with extreme attention to detail.
In the past Fincantieri has already built for PONANT four units, "Le Boréal", "L'Austral", "The Soléal" and "The Lyrial", delivered respectively in 2010, 2011, 2013 and 2015.
The Chief Executive Officer of Fincantieri, Giuseppe Bono, commented: "The agreement announced today is crucial for the whole Fincantieri group. Our production sites dedicated to cruise, in fact, they could not accommodate these buildings before several years, given the workload already procured, but through synergies implemented with Vard we were also able to meet the needs of Ponant, with whom we have now an established relationship ". Bono continued: "Thanks to this strategy we can further strengthen our leadership in the segment of luxury ships of small and medium size, as well as provide for the supply of key parts of the ship built in Italy, such as cabins and other passenger areas" .
Fincantieri owns 55.63% of the VARD capital and consolidates the results in full.
