Niche luxury French cruise company Compagnie du Ponant is to be acquired by European private equity firm Bridgepoint.
A joint statement said: “The agreement will offer La Compagnie du Ponant the resources it needs to fulfil its ambitions, maintain its growth momentum and take its international expansion to a new level.”
The deal, for an undisclosed sum, has been sealed between Bridgepoint and Ponant parent CMA CGM Group, the world’s third-largest container shipping company and the biggest in France.
Compagnie du Ponant employs 580 staff operating four luxury yachts. It carried 20,000 passengers last year with a turnover of €80 million.
Its fleet includes the sister ships L’Austral and Le Boréal and it has another, Le Soléal, under construction due to enter service in a year’s time.
The vessels range in capacity between 32 and 132 cabins with the company specialising in five star expedition cruising in the Arctic and Antarctic.