French ferry operator Brittany Ferries and French investor Somanor have cancelled the newbuilding contract with Flensburger (FSG) for the LNG powered ropax ‘Honfleur’.
She has been under construction since 2017 in Flensburg, Germany and was originally scheduled to enter service in June, 2019, however, the vessel’s delivery was postponed due to FSG’s continuing financial problems.
Brittany Ferries said: “The change of the main shareholder in September, 2019 with the arrival of Lars Windhorst and the Tennor group did not allow the yard to return to growth and competitiveness.”
In May, 2020, the yard was put under the protection of the German Commercial Court.
Following what were claimed as unsuccessful discussions with FSG’s management and its main creditors, the company said that it had ‘lost confidence in the yard’s ability to complete the vessel within a reasonable period of time’.
In 2017, the European Investment Bank (EIB), Brittany Ferries and the Societe Generale bank finalised a financing arrangement for ‘Honfleur’.
However, the board of creditors of FSG Shipyard have decided that work on the ‘Honfleur’s’ is to continue. Negotiations with all stakeholders were currently underway, the creditors claimed.
The LNG-powered ropax HONFLEUR is lying outside the building hall, in an advanced stage of construction.
Earlier, Irish Continental Group had cancelled a newbuilding, which still had to be launched.
The newbuilding ropax was ordered for Irish Ferries’ Dublin/Holyhead route.
She would have been the second large ropax to be built by FSG for Irish Ferries and was a slightly larger version of the badly delayed ropax ‘WB Yeats’, which arrived in Dublin in December, 2018 and entered service the following month.
