Cruise Yacht YardCo operates as the holding entity backed by the Oaktree fund and the billionaire Mark Scheinberg, who acquired full ownership in 2020 following a strategic move involving Hijos de J. Barreras shipyard. The company, originally formed in Malta under the name RCYC Holdco, later rebranded as Cruise Yacht YardCo when the management team led by Douglas Prothero assumed leadership, including the presidency and day-to-day operations. The Vigo region visit in 2017 began with an ambitious plan to construct a 250 million euro ultra-luxury cruise vessel and to explore options for two additional ships at the Beiramar site. Gaining control over the Barreras assets became seen as a tactic to bring the envisioned project to completion, backed by state guarantees and social peace measures for workers and suppliers.
Prothero executed a swift plan to relocate the project management by proposing an inspection and paint operation for the vessel in Santander, while quietly sequencing the shipyard’s orderly liquidation. Throughout the year of Cruise Yacht YardCo’s control, its direct investment in the vessel’s construction did not materialize in a traditional sense; the company reported minimal cash outlays, nearly a single euro, in the official financial disclosures. These figures appear in the company’s annual report and are registered with the Valletta trade registry in Malta. The records relate to the accounts of the OCM Luxembourg EPF IV Cruise Yacht Master, linked to Cruise Yacht Upper Holdco, and outline the payments tied to the vessel’s construction in Vigo and Cantabria, with the trajectory of the project evolving over time.
As Faro de Vigo, part of the Prensa Ibérica group, has reported, the Prothero team invested substantially more in Santander than in Galicia, even while owning the shipyard and guaranteeing at least one additional luxury vessel for the regional industry. In the fiscal year 2021, net investment in the ship’s construction reached 241 million dollars, up from 132 million dollars the previous year. Beyond the disclosed figures and the ownership details of the shipyard, the net investment amount is shown as a single dollar and ninety-four euro cents. Until the liquidation of the public limited company is finalized — the production unit has since been sold to Armón — the property remains under Cruise Yacht YardCo, a parent-and-subsidiary structure tied to the broader corporate framework.
Official accounts indicate that for 2021 the company reported a profit of about 19.7 million dollars. The profitability was achieved in the context of a bankruptcy sequence for Hijos de J. Barreras, with Kroll engaged to design a prepack liquidation and a parallel sale of the facilities. Amid this corporate activity, the Spanish state faced potential exposure of several hundred million euros as it shielded lenders during the restructuring. The Ritz-Carlton name associated with the project did not commence repayment of loans to financial institutions, which led to involvement through Cesce to mitigate the state’s exposure as the vessel moved toward launch in October. The project ultimately faced a delay of two and a half years beyond the initial schedule for the first voyage.