New Century Maritime, the Chinese shipping compaby, says it has acquired the 1990 built cruise ship Aegean paradise of 23,987 gross tons for $22.9 million from Hainan Cruise & Enterprises Shipping, another Chinese company.

The ship, which started life as the Japanese owned Orient Venus, will be acquired by Kingston Maritime, a wholly owned unit of the New Century group.

The buyer is principally engaged in the provision of cruise ship charter services, property investments and securities trading. It currently has two cruise ships, the 16,254 gross ton Leisure World, which was built in 1969 as Skyward for the then Norwegian Caribbean Lines and the 12,674 gross ton Amusement World that was built as the cruise ferry Patricia for Swedish Lloyd in 1967. Both have derived regular charter hire income for the group.

“With the steady outlook of the tourism industry in Singapore, the Group expects that its cruise ship charter services business segment will continue to bring positive contribution to the Group. The purchase of the vessel will enable the Group to further develop its cruise ship charter services business.

The Directors consider that the terms and conditions of the MOA to be fair and reasonable and that the Acquisition is in the interests of the Company and the shareholders of the Company as a whole,” New Century said.