Watson Farley & Williams (“WFW”) is pleased to announce that the firm advised on the largest ever ECA-backed cruise financing, which won the Transport Export Finance Deal of the Year 2024 and Global Deal of the Year 2024 at the TXF Perfect 10 Awards ceremony taking place on 11 June 2025.
By recognising only ten outstanding transactions in export finance across the world, the TXF Perfect 10 Awards are the industry gold-standard for excellence.
WFW advised BNP Paribas as agent, Italian export credit agency SACE S.p.A, SIMEST S.p.A. and a syndicate of ten banks on the financing, backed by SACE, granted to Carnival Corporation & plc for the construction of three next generation cruise vessels which will be built at Italian shipyard Fincantieri and delivered in 2029, 2031 and 2033 respectively.
With over 3,000 guest cabins and a capacity of 8,000 passengers, the new ships will be the largest in the Carnival Corporation global fleet and the largest ever built by Fincantieri. Ordered for the Carnival Cruise Line, they will be a new class of LNG-powered vessels and will weigh approximately 230,000 gross tonnes. They will also feature advanced energy efficiency, waste management and emission reduction technology.
The cross-border multidisciplinary WFW team that advised the lenders, SACE S.p.A and SIMEST S.p.A. was led by Finance Partners Alexia Russell (Paris) and Mario D’Ovidio (Milan). They were assisted by Senior Associate Parit Patani (London) and Trainee Diana Ciurezu (Paris) on matters of English law and by Associate Giulia Chiarvesio (Milan) on Italian law. London Partner Christina Howard and Associate Alice Halpin advised on the corporate aspects of the deal, with Partners Daniel Pilarski (New York) and Richard Stephens (London) providing sanctions and tax expertise respectively.
Walkers (Bermuda) Limited and Tapia Linares & Alfaro acted as Bermudan and Panamanian legal counsel respectively. Norton Rose Fulbright advised Carnival.
Alexia commented: “We are very proud to have advised on the financing of these three next-generation cruise ships which is the largest ever ECA-backed cruise deal. This matter being named not only Transport Deal of the Year but also Global Deal of the Year across all categories at the prestigious TXF Perfect 10 Export Finance Awards is testament to the outstanding achievement of our cross-border team in successful completing this unprecedented financing. It highlights the excellence of both our export finance and transport sector expertise, in particular our leadership in the cruise industry”.
