Anglo-Eastern is entering the cruise market via acquisition, as the vessel management company has bought CMI (now Anglo-Eastern Cruise Management) and CMI Leisure (Anglo-Eastern Leisure Management). The companies currently provide services to 20 cruise ships and the goal is to grow that.

“Our fleet is diverse. We have full technical management for over 650 vessels, plus another 250 under crew management, covering all types and sizes of ships,” said Carsten Ostenfeldt, chief operating officer.

“Bulk carriers, container ships, tankers, gas carriers, heavy-lift vessels, ro-ro carriers, and more, but never cruise ships. It has long been our intention to enter the cruise industry, but the right opportunity never presented itself until now. When it did, we were delighted to take up the challenge, so that we can diversify our fleet and business, and grow into a new area where we see a lot of potential.

“Obviously, a cargo ship is not a luxury cruise ship, but our commitment to excellence transcends ship type and we have every confidence that we will bring the same high standards to managing cruise ships, with the benefit of a fresh perspective from outside the industry,” Ostenfeldt added.

Scale

Sanjay Sukhrani, president and CEO of Anglo-Eastern Cruise Management, said the scale coming in is key, with the company having 25 offices, 22,000 seafarers and 2,000 employees ashore. With that pipeline in place, expect the company to be a major player in crewing across the industry.

“Our economies of scale in procurement can be leverage,” he said, adding the company has a huge training center in Mumbai as well … training means better quality and a more satisfied customer and improves our value proposition.

“Cruise lines need to have a service provider that can manage assets safely and cost effectively,” he added, noting customers saw vessel management as a cost center.

“If you don’t have scale it’s hard to do that. Our training center in Mumbai would take $60 to $70 million to replicate, and that is cap-ex ship owners don’t want to do.”

At Anglo-Eastern Leisure Management, Dietmar Wertanzl, president and CEO, did not rule out further expansion beyond the niche and expedition markets.

“We have the infrastructure in place with the resources we can grow from,” he said. “They bring operational excellence and put some big horsepower behind us to create a bigger and stronger company together.”

The companies plan to offer an expanding a la-carte menu to cruise lines, ranging from full technical and hotel management to compliance help, crewing and more.