Page 73: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (February 1998)

Fincantieri Launches P&O

Sea Princess Cruises Liner

Fincantieri launched cruise ship

Sea Princess at its Monfalcone yard on January 23. The vessel is the third of four 77,000-gt liners for P&O-Princess Cruises and is a sister ship of Sun Princess and

Dawn Princess, delivered in

November 1995 and April 1997, respectively. Delivery of Sea

Priness is scheduled for early 1999.

Sun Princess inaugurated P&O-

Princess Cruises' Grand class series in 1995. A fourth sister ship,

Ocean Princess, will be built soon.

Fincantieri is currently complet- ing 109,000-gt Grand Princess, touted to be the biggest cruise ship in the world and destined to become the flagship of the P&O-

Princess Cruises fleet.

MC Shipping To Add

To Fleet

MC Shipping reportedly is posi- tioned to add to its fleet of 13 ves- sels. The company, which added five ships last year, reportedly believes that market conditions are right — i.e. ship prices are declining — for such a move.

Global Buys Rig

For $150M

In a positive sign for the off- shore exploration industry in gen- eral, and Global Marine in particu- lar, the company announced that it has bought a third-generation semi-submersible drilling rig from a unit of Coflexip Stena Offshore for $150 million.

Dubbed Stena Forth, the rig is reportedly capable of working in water depths of 1,800 ft. and can be modified up to 3,000 ft. It is projected that the unit will gener- ate revenues of $68 million in a contract in the U.K. North Sea which extends to November 1998.

Ceres Orders High-Speed

Ferry

Greece's Ceres Hellenic

Shipping Enterprises reportedly ordered a 157.5-ft.(48-m), 516-pas- senger, 43-knot catamaran ferry from Austal Ships. The vessel — scheduled for delivery by the start of this summer — is scheduled to serve the Piraeus-Poros-Hydra-

Spetses-Porto Heli route.

Sea Containers Ferry To

Enter Service; Company

Seeks $100M

Sea Containers SuperSeaCat fast ferry will enter service in early

March, for service between

Liverpool and Dublin. The compa- ny said that the vessel will cut about two and a half hours off con- ventional ferry crossing times.

The 328-ft. (100-m) craft has a capacity for 774 passengers and 175 cars.

In addition, Sea Containers intends to raise about $100 million via a private placement of unse- cured senior notes, subject to mar- ket and other conditions. The com- pany intends to use the net pro- ceeds for general corporate purpos- es, which may include funding for the previously announced pro- posed joint venture with General

Electric Co. affiliate GE Capital, repayment of debt, redemption of preferred stock, capital spending and working capital.

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