Ambassador Cruise Line and Compagnie Française de Croisières (CFC) have reached an settlement to merge, forming the “Ambassador Group,” in accordance with a press launch
The brand new group goals to ascertain itself as a number one European cruise operator, specializing in premium, inexpensive, no-fly cruises for older vacationers. The transaction is anticipated to shut by the tip of January 2025.
The Ambassador Group will function three ships: Ambassador’s Atmosphere and Ambition and CFC’s just lately refurbished Renaissance. Each cruise traces will proceed providing conventional British or French merchandise to their respective markets.
Leveraging Ambassador’s UK presence and CFC’s robust presence within the French no-fly cruise sector, the group plans to capitalize on the projected 12 p.c annual development of the European cruise market over the subsequent 5 years. The main target will likely be increasing into new locations whereas providing sustainable and genuine cruise experiences.
Christian Verhounig, CEO of Ambassador Cruise Line, stated: “The mix of Ambassador and CFC is a daring step in direction of our shared imaginative and prescient for the cruise business. By uniting our strengths, we’re creating a corporation that delivers distinctive experiences to our visitors whereas upholding sustainable practices. Collectively, we are going to prepared the ground in providing inexpensive, high-quality, genuine and environmentally accountable cruises.”
Maëlysse Pierrot-Guibourt, CEO of Compagnie Française de Croisières, added: “This thrilling merger underscores our collective confidence within the cruise business’s brilliant future and our dedication to delivering distinctive experiences. CFC is a brand new and rising French model, and this merger with Ambassador, a profitable, bold British model that wishes to develop markets and locations, is extraordinarily optimistic for each companies, maximizing synergies to create a formidable pressure within the cruise business. CFC, with its extremely spectacular ranges of visitor satisfaction and repeat enterprise, provides genuine and distinctive premium French cruise experiences which is not going to solely be retained however additional enriched.”
The group plans to improve the Renaissance with superior environmental applied sciences throughout drydock in January 2025, making certain IMO Tier III compliance and aligning with the corporate’s sustainability targets.
Beginning Winter 2025-26, the Group will launch a fly-cruise Caribbean program in partnership with Corendon, with homeports in Barbados, Martinique and Curaçao. This marks the Group’s entry into the fly-cruise market and expands its year-round choices, concentrating on visitors from the UK, France and the Netherlands.
Ambassador Group will likely be majority-owned by Njord Companions, with Cheyne Capital holding a minority stake.
Jakob Kjellberg, co-founder of Njord Companions, stated: “We’re very proud to announce one other vital milestone in Ambassador’s journey to turning into a pacesetter within the European inexpensive worth silver cruise market. We’re dedicated to persevering with to spend money on the sector, assured in its potential and our means to develop into a market chief. This partnership underscores our perception within the energy and development of the European cruise market.”