Colin Veitch former chief executive of Norwegian Cruise Line is suing British billionaire Sir Richard Branson and his Virgin Group conglomerate, claiming that Virgin stole his ideas and business plans to enter the luxury cruise industry, the Daily Telegraph newspaper reports on its website.
"Colin Veitch, who oversaw Norwegian from 2000 to 2008, and his VSM Development company is seeking more than $300 million in damages and has asked a judge to stop Virgin from going forward with its recently announced Miami-based cruise line," the report said.
The lawsuit, filed in Miami federal court, alleges Virgin reneged on a May 2011 agreement with Mr Veitch over how estimated profits would be split. Mr Veitch would get nothing if the 4,200-passenger "ultra" ships were not profitable but could earn $315m if projections were met, the report continued.
The 4,200 passenger capacity of the planned Virgin ships is the same as that of the Breakaway Plus series that Norwegian is currently building at the Meyer shipyard in Germany.
"Richard Branson and the Virgin Group first looked at the cruise market in the late 1970s, and our current team has been exploring the opportunity for more than a decade. Over the years, we have been in discussions with a number of parties including the plaintiff, and those discussions ceased in 2012. We strongly believe the claim has no merits," the report quoted a Virgin spokesman as saying.
Sir Richard told The Telegraph at the weekend that he will commission the construction of two giant ships as part of ambitious plans to gatecrash the cruise liner market. The ships are likely to be built in a German or Italian shipyard and will take four to five years to complete, at the cost of around $1.7bn (£1.1bn).
“We’re in the final throes of those negotiations,” Sir Richard said. Financial backing for Virgin Cruises, which will be based in Miami, South Florida, has been secured from private equity firm Bain Capital. Sir Richard has brought in Tom McAlpin, part of the management team that founded the Disney Cruise Line in 1996, to head up the new company, the report concluded.
