Carnival, banks agree $2.1 billion revolving credit facility

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Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen

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Published: 02 March 2023 02 March 2023

Carnival Corporation & plc, the world’s largest cruise shipping group, has announced that it has successfully arranged a new forward starting $2.1 billion multi-currency revolving credit facility.

“The New Revolver will replace Carnival Corporation's existing multi-currency revolving credit facility upon its maturity in August 2024. The New Revolver was issued by the Carnival Corporation's subsidiary Carnival Holdings (Bermuda) II Limited and has an initial term of one year, commencing August 2024, with two, mutual one-year extension options,” the compa y said in a statement. 

The new facility also contains an accordion feature, allowing for additional commitments up to an aggregate of $2.9 billion, which is the amount of the existing revolver.

"Our new facility enables us to retain the full benefit of our $2.9 billion revolver until August 2024, while building on our base $2.1 billion commitment over the next 18 months. The successful transaction is a direct reflection of our strong bank relationships and confidence in our continuing return to strong profitability, which we plan to utilize as a springboard to deleveraging and returning to investment grade," said David Bernstein, Chief Financial Officer.

The new revolver would be unsecured and guaranteed on an unsecured basis by Carnival Corporation, Carnival plc and the same subsidiaries of the Company that guarantee the Existing Revolver. “In connection with entering into the New Revolver, the Company and its subsidiaries will contribute three unencumbered vessels to the Borrower, with each of these vessels continuing to be operated under one of the Company's brands,” Carnival said. 

The new revolver was co-coordinated by Bank of America, BNP Paribas and JP Morgan. PJT Partners served as independent financial advisor to Carnival Corporation & plc.

Holland America Group's Natalya Leahy appointed President of Seabourn

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Written by Teijo Niemelä Teijo Niemelä

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Published: 01 March 2023 01 March 2023

Ultra-luxury cruise line Seabourn announced the appointment today of Natalya Leahy as the business’s new president. Leahy, whose seven years with Holland America Group included operational oversight of Seabourn, succeeds Josh Leibowitz who is leaving the brand to pursue new opportunities.

Leahy was most recently chief operating officer for Holland America Group serving Princess, Holland America Line, Seabourn, P&O Australia and land operations. Prior to joining the cruise industry, she held various leadership roles with Procter & Gamble and Coca-Cola, supporting iconic brands and new product launches.

As part of a structure to build on the benefit of shared services between Holland America Line and Seabourn, she will report to Gus Antorcha, president of Holland America Line.

“Seabourn has earned a top position in the luxury and expedition cruising space, and Natalya’s expertise, background and proven track record in delivering results is ideal to build on that success,” Antorcha said. “With her leadership and the introduction later this year of our second purpose-built expedition ship, Seabourn Pursuit, I am confident in the future growth of Seabourn.”

“It’s an honor to join the extraordinary Seabourn team and partners who take personal pride in curating transformative, enriching, one-of-a-kind Seabourn moments,” Leahy said. “We have built unmatched luxury experiences at sea that provide life expanding moments for our guests. I am excited to support and work with our trade partners as we continue to surprise and delight our guests in ways they would never imagine.”

Leibowitz oversaw the successful return to service of the Seabourn fleet. He also led the expansion into ultra-luxury expedition voyages with the launch of Seabourn Venture, offering guests opportunities to explore remote destinations in every corner of the world. Leibowitz was instrumental in the relaunch of the Seabourn brand with the award-winning “This Is Your Moment” marketing campaign, to focus on active, affluent travel decision makers. Prior to Seabourn, he served for seven years as chief strategy officer for Carnival Corporation.

“Josh’s leadership in navigating the pause and return to service proved valuable for Seabourn’s future,” Antorcha added. “We appreciate his contributions and wish him well. This business has a bright future with the best in all-inclusive, luxury cruising and now expedition voyages. I look forward to seeing Natalya bring her passion and talent to Seabourn’s success.”

World Dream sold at auction to undisclosed buyer

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Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen

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Published: 01 March 2023 01 March 2023

World Dream, the last vessel of the collapsed Genting Hong Kong group, has been sold at an auction in Singapore to an undisclosed buyer, media reports say.

A report on tradewindsnews.com says the 150,700 gross ton vessel is now managed by Columbia Cruise Services instead of V Ships Leisure that had been in charge of it since the ship was arrested for debt in late 2020. 

The ship’s owner is now stated as World Dream Inc. with the classification society DNV, the report said.

Photo credit: Meyer Werft

RPT - Invitation to our readers to contribute to study on future cruise experience

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Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen

Category: More News More News

Published: 01 March 2023 01 March 2023

NavisSpace – Improving the future cruise experience

Our readers are invited to give their input to a Finnish R & D project on how to improve the cruise experience in the future. Below is a letter that explains the goals of the work and  at the bottom of it there is a link to a website where you may give your views. Thank you for your contribution!

The mission of the NavisSpace project is to make a positive contribution to the future cruise experience. This is done by creating new solutions in specific areas, providing new research on cruise vacation sustainability and trying to put the gathered knowledge into work in cruise ship design. The partners of the project are two universities with long traditions in shipping research, Åbo Akademi and Aalto, and a handful of companies serving the cruise industry; the shipyard Meyer, the elevator company Kone, the marine catering supplier Seaking and the Kudos architects specializing in interior design of cruise ships. PBI Research Institute is coordinating the project which will go on until the Summer of 2024.

Our main focus is on finding solutions improving the cruise experience in the fields where the partners in the project have potential to develop value enhancing solutions. These spheres are the public spaces of the ship, the restaurant service as well as the people and goods flow. We will read literature, interview industry participants and crew along searching clues from social media sources, to get a grasp how to add value in our chosen fields. An important source of information will be a survey (link below) that we hope will generate answers from cruise passengers or persons thinking about going on a cruise in the future. With the information gathered, combined with the expertise of our partners, we think that we can create solutions valued by customers and crew and which, in the end, also will benefit the cruise liners.

Sustainability is one thing which can not be discarded when thinking about the world today. Cruise tourism may have sustainability issues, and if these are too severe, they may affect the cruise experience for conscious travelers. Cruise ships are in several sources pointed out to be unsustainable. This conclusion is easily drawn if measures such as emissions per passenger kilometer or mile is used and then compared, for example, to flying. We think this is the wrong comparison, cruising is not so much about moving from one place to another but a destination in itself. Therefore, one task in our project is to investigate how a cruise vacation compares in terms of sustainability issues to other forms of vacations.

Our ultimate goal in NavisSpace is to get the information collected and the developed solutions to be put in to use in ship building. Being a very complex and big endeavor involving high risks, ship building for sure has a long history. How can new ideas and better solutions be incorporated at the early concept and design phases of a new ship is challenge. We will try to alter the process so that it is easier to get the best solutions adopted. This is not an easy task and requires self-interest to be put on hold and trust to be built, but if we are able to create collaborative contracting and incentive structures, there can be much to gain -and not only a better and more sustainable ship but a cheaper one too.

You can be part on this journey by answering the survey on the following link:

https://pbiresearch.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6M4sTPAGGfP7KJ0