The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong (HKEX) announced overnight that it will cancel the listing of shares in collapsed cruise ship giant Genting Hong Kong as of 9am next Tuesday, 16 May 2023.
With the company’s shares suspended since 18 January 2022, HKEX rules provide that the shares can be delisted after 18 months, or by 17 July, if trading is not resumed in that time.
However, HKEX said in a filing that Genting Hong Kong’s liquidators have confirmed the company had “ceased (substantially all or all of) its business operations and was not expected to be able to develop any plan to address its insolvency and resume business operations to re-comply with Rule 13.24.
“The company’s liquidators did not have any plan to meet all other resumption guidance and requested the Exchange to exercise its discretion to delist the company immediately,” it added.
“Having considered the request and the company’s circumstances, on 28 April 2023, the Listing Committee considered that the company was no longer suitable for listing under Rule 6.01(4) and should be delisted immediately in accordance with Rule 6.01.”
Genting Hong Kong confirmed separately that it will not apply for a review of the delisting decision.
The delisting comes after Genting Hong Kong filed a petition with the Supreme Court of Bermuda in January last year for the winding up of the company, having defaulted on US$2.8 billion in debt and failed to secure funding needed to meet its financial obligations.
The company said at the time that although it had filed winding up orders, it hoped restructuring would allow the company to continue as a going concern.
Instead, liquidators have spent the past year selling off key assets, including cruise ships previously operated under its Asia-facing Dream Cruises and US-facing Crystal Cruises brands, and its German shipbuilding yards.
Genting Hong Kong’s controlling shareholder, Genting Group patriarch Lim Kok Thay, has since registered and launched a new cruise ship brand in Singapore called Resorts World Cruises – leaving his former cruise brand to be dissolved.
