Luxus News

The MacArtney Group released a range of brackets and accessories now available for use with MacArtney LUXUS underwater Cameras and Lights. For use with diver helmets, MacArtney holds a wide range of LUXUS brackets in stock. This includes bracket types that are fully compatible with professional diver helmet brands, including industry standard Kirby Morgan models. The range of MacArtney LUXUS diver helmet brackets includes a special click-on dovetail configuration, which is very easy mount and demount.

Following a presence through official sales representative Kongsberg Geoacoustics, MacArtney Singapore Pte. Ltd. is now open for business. Located in the major offshore hub of South East Asia, MacArtney Singapore provides an increased regional sales base, offering local access to stock and capacity, resulting in efficient service and prompt delivery to underwater technology customers in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Brunei, Indonesia and the Philippines. Having recently established a new and successful subsidiary in Perth…

DCN Diving recently contracted MacArtney to build & deliver a range of underwater technology equipment for use on a major project. DCN Diving had been called upon to perform a diver-habitat based inspection and repair of the inlet channels at a large European power plant. Critical projects like this often come with a challenging timeframe and this instance proved no different. One of the challenges related to the project was the extensive length of the actual inlet tunnels, which required the umbilical cable for interfacing the control room and the diver habitats to be almost 900 metres long.

Northern Irish shipyard Harland and Wolff has won a provisional order worth more than $350 million to build two luxury cruise liners, company officials said. The shipyard, which earlier this month secured its future with a $450 million order for four passenger ferries, said it had been awarded a letter of intent by cruise line Luxus Holdings. The 28,000 ton ships will carry 380 passengers and measure more than 656 ft. (200 m), officials said. Luxus said the ships were designed to mimic the standards of a large luxury yacht. The order follows news that Northern Ireland's largest manufacturing sector employer, Bombardier Aerospace, plans to create 1,200 new jobs over the next two years at its Belfast-based aerospace unit Short Brothers Plc.

Cammell Laird Holdings, which has been a strong shipbuilding and repair success story for several years, announced that it was to build two cruise ships, breathing further life into the struggling U.K. shipbuilding industry. Cammell Laird, however, said the contract with Luxus (UK) Ltd. for two 28,000-ton ships was conditional on the go-ahead from the UK government and Shipbuilding Intervention Funding, as well as ship mortgage finance guarantees to Luxus's bankers. The deal could be worth a reported $497.9 million, with the work expected to be shared between Merseyside in the northwest, Teeside and Tyneside in the northeast and Gosport on the south coast. Cammell Laird lost out last month on orders for six army roll-on roll-off transport ships.

Cammell Laird Holdings Plc is trying to hammer out a new agreement this week to save a nearly $76 million (51 million pound) cruise liner contract and protect hundreds of jobs, the Daily Telegraph reported. Cammell was also looking for a breakthrough later this week on talks about bank financing for a 350 million pound order for two cruise liners from Luxus (U.K.), a new start-up company, the paper said. It said senior executives headed by Chief Executive John Stafford were studying fresh proposals on the cruise liner contract. They were put forward by Costa Crociere, the Italian cruise line owned by U.S. Carnival Corp., after two and a half days of talks in Genoa last week, the paper said.

Shares in Cammell Laird fell nearly nine percent on Thursday after news the British shipbuilder's $500 million contract with U.S. firm Luxus was at risk, threatening a second blow to the yard in as many months. Since it began a dispute with Costa Classica -- an Italian unit of U.S group Carnival Corp. -- last Autumn over a key cruise ship contract, which was subsequently terminated, its shares have fallen dramatically from a year high of 147p. While the Costa Classica dispute raged on -- leading to 450 job losses and an expected impact on year results -- the company was hopeful that the Luxus contract would provide bedrock work throughout the group for the next three years.

Cammell Laird's $500 million contract with U.S. firm Luxus could fail unless loan guarantees are received from the British government by the end of February. "It's urgent. I'd like to think it (loan guarantee approval) was certainly this month," Juan Kelly said. Kelly said he had written to British Trade and Industry Secretary Stephen Byers to urge the speedy approval of loan guarantees for Luxus, which has ordered two luxury liners from Cammell Laird. Without the guarantees, Luxus, which is a start-up company, may not get bank loans to fund the orders, sources at Cammell Laird said recently. The guarantees could cover some 60 percent of the value of the contract.

The British government's attempts to save 1,500 jobs at struggling shipbuilder Cammell Laird were apparently in grave danger on Wednesday after the chairman of a cruise firm offering Cammell a lifeline contract reportedly said the deal looked dead. "We have been offered impossible terms. I do not want to be the one to bring bad news but you cannot keep pushing water up a hill indefinitely," Luxus chairman Jim Davis reportedly said. It was also reported that the shipbuilder is undergoing further difficulties, specifically that the government was now insisting on a $150 million performance bond to protect itself should the investment fail. With assets of only $110 million, Cammell would most likely not be able to secure banking support for such a bond.

Cammell Laird gave a cautious response to an improved government aid package to help it win a $500 million pound contract to build two cruise ships. The U.K. Department of Trade & Industry (DTI) said late on Monday it would share an extra $100 million risk with the company to underwrite the risk of the contract falling through. The government had previously offered $300 million in guaranteed loans to cover the contract. A spokesman for Cammell Laird said the next step was for cruise company Luxus to decide on whether or not to accept the government's package, which a DTI spokeswoman described as the highest level of risk-sharing the British government had ever undertaken under its shipbuilding credit guarantee scheme.

Standard & Poor's downgraded British shipbuilder and repairer Cammell Laird, stoking fears it will miss the first coupon payment next month on a 125 million euro high-yield bond. S&P cut the company's long-term credit rating to CC from CCC and its senior unsecured debt to "C" from CCC-minus. It said in a statement that the company's ratings would stay on review for a further downgrade. Cammell Laird hit stormy waters in January when Italian customer Costa Crociere cancelled a 51 million pound contract to refit a liner. Explaining the ratings cut, S&P also cited Cammell Laird's failure to secure aid from the UK government to clinch a $500 million contract with U.S. start-up cruise liner company Luxus.

The UK Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) made no change to its aid offer to British shipbuilder and repairer Cammell Laird, stoking concerns the firm could lose a $500 million contract. Bonds issued by the troubled company have halved in price over the past week as fears grow that the company will not make its first interest rate payment, due on April 15, bankers said. The debt is now worth just 10 cents to the euro. The company said in February it would lose the make-or-break contract with U.S. cruise ship firm Luxus unless the government improved an aid and loan guarantee package to secure the deal by the beginning of March. But the DTI told Reuters on Monday it had written to Cammell Laird last Monday restating the same position and that it is now awaiting the company’s response.

Cammell Laird, under threat of losing a key $500 million deal with U.S. cruise ship firm Luxus, said it had won a U.K. Navy contract, helping safeguard 150 jobs at the group. "The work will generate employment security throughout the period (82 days) for some 150 personnel," Cammell Laird Holdings Plc said in a statement. The contract to repair the Fort George ship at Tyneside, northeast England, is worth just under $7.17 million. "It's certainly nowhere near the size of the Luxus contract, but it shows the market that we're out there fighting and winning work," Cammell Laird Managing Director Dave Skentelbery said. The company's stock has fallen more than 90 percent since November…

Bonds issued by British shipbuilder Cammell Laird held steady at deeply-discounted levels on Tuesday after the company unveiled a strategic review which could include a debt restructuring. Investors quoted Cammell's 125 million euro high-yield bond due October 2010 at 11 to 13 percent of face value at around 1245 GMT, down by around half a percentage point from Tuesday's opening. The bonds have been trading at levels that clearly imply default for some time, dealers said. Investors said they expected Cammell to miss the first coupon payment on the bond, due on April 15. "The market was clearly expecting this and the news looked as though it had already been priced in," said Martin Reeves, vice-president of fixed income at Alliance Capital.

Moody's Investors Service downgraded to Ca from Caa2 the rating for the Euro 125 million senior notes of Cammell Laird Holdings plc (CLH) following the company's announcement of a strategic review of its operations and financial structure which may lead to a restructuring of the notes. The following ratings were downgraded: CLH's senior implied rating to Caa2 from B3, the rating of a GBP 50 million secured revolving credit facility to Caa2 from B3, CLH's issuer rating to Ca from Caa2 and the bond rating to Ca from Caa2. The ratings remain under review for possible further downgrade. The downgrade reflects Moody's concern that CLH's financial…

Standard & Poor's today lowered its long-term corporate credit and senior unsecured debt ratings on Cammell Laird Holdings PLC (Cammell Laird) to 'D' from double-'C' and single-'C', respectively. At the same time, the ratings were removed from CreditWatch, where they were placed with negative implications on Nov. 30, 2000. These actions follow the appointment of receivers to intermediate holding company Cammell Laird Group PLC, and the Group's failure today to make the first coupon payment of EUR7.5 million ($6.7 million) on its EUR125 million 10-year bond. Cammell Laird Group acts as the guarantor of Cammell Laird's senior unsecured notes. Cammell Laird is a small U.K. shipbuilder that generated revenues totaling GBP129 million ($185 million) in the year to Oct. 31, 2000.

Struggling British shipbuilder Cammell Laird, which called in receivers last week, is to mothball its yard at Teesside, northeast England, and cut over 300 jobs nationally. Accountants PriceWaterhouseCoopers, who are acting as receivers, said on Wednesday there would be 110 job losses at Teesside, 150 cut at Birkenhead, northwest England, and around 60 cuts at Tyneside, northeast England. The company, whose main shipyard was set up in 1824, had laid off an unspecified number of U.K. workers in recent weeks, PriceWaterhouseCoopers said. The group has a total U.K. workforce of nearly 2,000. Cammell Laird entered receivership after a series of cancelled orders hit its finances, causing it to suspend trading in its stock and bonds.

Trade in the shares and bonds of troubled British shipbuilder Cammell Laird was suspended on Wednesday, leaving investors and workers fearing the worst ahead of an announcement on its financial position. The company, whose main shipyard at Birkenhead near Liverpool in northwest England was established in 1824, has been under threat of losing a key $500 million dollar deal with a cruise ship firm. About 1,500 jobs at the Liverpool yard depend on the contract’s go ahead. Cammell Laird's shares were suspended at their Tuesday closing price of six pence at the company's request. The company has been headed toward a downward spiral for the last few months with its shares having fallen by more than 90 percent since November…