Illustration of the Breakaway Plus-class courtesy Norwegian Cruise Lines
Norwegian Cruise Line (NASDAQ: NCLH) has announced that it has reached an agreement with Germany’s Meyer Werft shipyard to build two new Breakaway-Plus class cruise ships for delivery in the second quarter 2018 and the fourth quarter 2019.
Each ship will be 164,600 gross tons and include 4,200 passenger berths.
The contract price for both ships is approximately euro 1.6 billion, or approximately $1.08 billion per ship. NCL says it has export credit financing in place for each ship, arranged and underwritten by KfW IPEX-Bank GmbH of Germany.
“Norwegian Breakaway and Norwegian Getaway have proven themselves as industry game-changers and are extremely popular with our guests,” said Kevin Sheehan, Norwegian Cruise Line’s chief executive officer. “It was only natural that we build on their success with this new ship order that further solidifies our long-term growth strategy.”
“We are thrilled that Norwegian Cruise Line has the continued confidence in MEYER WERFT to expand their fleet,” said Bernard Meyer, managing partner of MEYER WERFT. “We are very proud of our longstanding relationship with Norwegian.”
The Breakaway class features NCL’s “Freestyle Cruising” concept that the company pioneered with the introduction of 4,100-passenger Norwegian Epic in June 2010 and the launch of two Breakway class vessels, the 4,000-passenger Norwegian Breakaway based in New York in May 2013 and sister ship Norwegian Getaway homeported in Miami in February 2014. The Norwegian Breakaway and Norwegian Getaway weight in at 146,600 gross tons.
The Company currently has four vessels on order at Meyer Werft for delivery in fall 2015, spring 2017, spring 2018 and fall 2019, all of the Breakaway-Plus class, which are largest in the company’s fleet.
The first two Breakaway-Plus ships were ordered with a combined contract price of approximately euro 1.4 billion, NCL said previously.
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