Carnival Corp & plc, the world’s largest cruise shipping group, forecasts its earnings per share (eps) this year to come close to the $2.47 figure reached in the previous financial year despite challenges resulting from unrest in North Africa and the Middle East.
“At this point in time, cumulative advance bookings for the remainder of the year are at higher prices with lower occupancies versus last year. For the last six weeks, booking volumes for the second half of 2011 are well ahead of the prior year for the North America brands, as well as, the Europe, Australia and Asia brands. Pricing for the North America brands remains strong. Pricing for the Europe, Australia and Asia brands has been significantly affected by the prolonged conflict in the Middle East and North Africa regions and earthquake in Japan, which necessitated veryclose-in deployment changes for more than 300 cruises. The Southern Europe brands were particularly affected with over 40 percent of their deployments in these areas,” the company said.
“As previously announced, the impact of these events are expected to cost the company an additional $0.15 per share in the second half of the year and reduces full year revenue yields by approximately 1.0 percent. The company now expects full year net revenue yields, on a constant dollar basis, to increase 1.5 to 2.5 percent, compared toits March guidance increase of 2.5 to 3.5 percent. Net revenue yields on acurrent dollar basis are expected to increase 4.0 to 5.0 percent for the full year 2011 compared to 2010.”
Chairman and ceo Micky Arison noted,"Our North America brands continue to perform well, benefiting from the gradual economic recovery, with strong yield growth expected in the second halfof the year. We expect lower yields for our Europe, Australia and Asia segmentin the second half of 2011 as a result of the significant deployment changes inEurope. Despite the considerable challenges we have faced this year, the long-term fundamentals of our business remain sound."
The company continues to expect net cruise costs excluding fuel per ALBD for the full year 2011 to be flat to up 1.0 percent on a constant dollar basis, which is in line with its March guidance. "Taking all the above factors into consideration, the company now forecasts full year 2011 fully diluted earnings per share to be in the range of $2.40 to $2.50, compared to 2010 earnings of$2.47 per share. Based on the current spot prices for fuel, fuel costs for the full year 2011 are now expected to increase $515 million compared to 2010, costing an additional $0.65 per share," Carnival said.
