Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. announces new Chairman and other appointments to its Board of Directors

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd., today announced the following appointments to its Board of Directors, effective as of March 27, 2015.

Walter Revel, longtime director, has been appointed Chairman of the Board of Directors of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings. Revel has served as director and Chairman of the Audit Committee for the Company since 2005 and as director of certain predecessor companies beginning in 1993. Since 1984, Mr. Revell has been Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Revell Investments International, Inc., a diversified investment, development and management company located in Coral Gables, Florida. Since 2002, Mr. Revell has also served as a director of International Finance Bank in Miami, Florida, and became Chairman of the Board in September 2013. Since 1990, he has served as Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Pinehurst Development, Inc., a family owned company. Revel also serves on the Executive Committee, the Board of Trustees and as Chairman of the New Museum Project Committee of the Miami Science Museum. He formerly was a director of Calpine Corporation, Dycom Industries, Rinker Materials, The St. Joe Company and Sun Banks of Florida. Mr. Revell served as Secretary of Transportation for the State of Florida in the Askew Administration. He is a past Chairman of the Florida Chamber of Commerce and was a member of The Florida Council of 100 for 37 years. He served as Chairman and CEO of H.J. Ross Associates, Inc., consulting engineers, planners and scientists, and continues as Senior Advisor to T.Y. Lin International, the new parent company, in San Francisco.

Kevin C. Jones, a designee of Genting Hong Kong Limited, was appointed director of the Company. Mr. Jones is the General Counsel, Secretary and Senior Vice President of Corporate Development & Strategy for Genting Americas Inc., an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of Genting Malaysia Berhad. Mr. Jones oversees all legal, corporate compliance, risk management and strategic corporate development matters for the North American operations of Genting Malaysia Berhad. Prior to accepting his current position with Genting Americas Inc., Mr. Jones practiced law at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, serving as counsel for multi-billion dollar companies in a broad range of general corporate and real estate transactions.

Blondel So King Tak, a designee of Genting Hong Kong Limited, was appointed a director of the Company. Mr. So joined Genting HK as Chief Financial Officer in July 2007. In October 2009, Mr. So was appointed Chief Operating Officer and in August 2014 was appointed Executive Vice President (Corporate Services) and Country Head of Hong Kong & Macau for Genting HK. Mr. So also acts as a director of various subsidiaries of Genting HK. He has over 23 years of experience in the financial sector with the first 15 years in the banking industry. Prior to joining Genting HK, he held a number of senior positions in multinational corporations and listed companies.

Ongoing improvement in cruise industry fundamentals - Carnival's Donald

Carnival Corp & plc President and CEO Arnold Donald says the the cruise industry's fundamentals continue to improve.

He noted in a statement: “We are experiencing an ongoing improvement in underlying fundamentals based on our successful initiatives to drive demand. Our efforts to further elevate our guest experience are clearly resonating with consumers and, notably, improving the frequency and retention of our loyal guests.”

At this time, cumulative advance bookings for the remainder of 2015 are ahead of the prior year at higher prices. Since January, booking volumes for the remainder of the year are running in line with last year’s historically high levels at higher prices.

Donald added, “We are also seeing results from our ongoing public relations efforts and creative marketing campaign designed to attract new to cruise. Our multifaceted campaign built around the Super Bowl garnered 5 billion media impressions before the commercial aired and has exceeded 10 billion impressions to date.”

Donald also noted that the recent delivery of Britannia of P&O Cruises, at 143,760 gross tons the largest cruise ship built for Britain and named by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, drew international acclaim and showcased cruising on a global scale.

Carnival forecasts strong yield rise, but warns of strong dollar

Carnival Corp & plc, the Anglo-American cruise shipping giant, says it expects yields to rise much more than anticipated in December, but warns that a firmer dollar will have a negative impact.

Based on current booking strength, the company expects full year 2015 net revenue yields to increase 3% to 4% on a constant currency basis, which excludes translation and transactional currency impacts, compared to the prior year. "This is one full (percentage) point better than December guidance on a constant currency basis," Carnival said.

On a constant dollar basis, which does not exclude the unfavourable transactional impact of currency, the company still expects yields to be approximately 2% higher than the prior year. The company expects net cruise costs excluding fuel per ALBD for full year 2015 to be up 2% to 3% percent compared to the prior year on a constant dollar basis, which is better than December guidance of up 3% due primarily to the favorable transactional currency impact.

Since December, unfavourable changes in currency exchange rates (constant currency) have reduced full year 2015 earnings expectations by $219 million, or $0.28 per share. However, this impact has been significantly offset by the improvement in the company’s operating performance, resulting in just a $0.05 reduction to the midpoint of December guidance.

Taking the above factors into consideration, the company forecasts full year 2015 non-GAAP diluted earnings per share to be in the range of $2.30 to $2.50, compared to 2014 non-GAAP diluted earnings of $1.93 per share.

Looking forward, Donald stated, “Consistent with many global companies, the strengthening of the U.S. dollar has hampered our full year earnings expectations, masking the 3% to 4% (constant currency) yield increase our collective brands are expecting to achieve. Our successful initiatives to drive both ticket and onboard revenue yields have improved our financial performance and we remain on track toward our goal of achieving double-digit return on invested capital in the next three to four years.”