News

Norwegian group raises private offering of notes by 20% to $600 million

Details: Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen; Category: Top Headlines Top Headlines; Published: 06 November 2015 06 November 2015

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. (NCLH), the world’s third largest cruise shipping group, said that its subsidiary, NCL Corporation Ltd.has entered into an agreement to sell $600.0 million aggregate principal amount of 4.625% senior unsecured notes due November 2020 in a private offering.

“The size of the offering was increased from $500.0 million to $600.0 million. The Notes are to be issued at par,” NCLH said in a statement.

“The company expects to use the net proceeds from the Offering, after deducting the initial purchasers' discount and estimated fees and expenses, to redeem and discharge its outstanding 5.00% Senior Notes due 2018 and for other general corporate purposes, which may include debt repayment and/or opportunistic repurchases of common stock from time to time under its ongoing share repurchase program,” NCLH said.

North American cruise capacity could contract 2017 on China transfers

Details: Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen; Category: Top Headlines Top Headlines; Published: 04 November 2015 04 November 2015

Cruise industry's capacity in the North American market may contract in 2017 in the wake of transfers of vessels to China, said Robin Farley, cruise industry analyst at UBS Securities in New York.

"CCL (Carnival Cruise Line) announced last week they will be deploying two more ships, 2,124-berth Carnival Miracle and 3,000-berth Carnival Splendor, to sail year-round in China starting in spring '17 and spring '18, respectively. While CCL had previously indicated a Carnival brand ship would go to China in '17, the '18 deployment was incremental," she said in a research note.

These redeployments will reduce the 2017 capacity growth to 0.8% from an earlier estimate of 1.3% and that of 2018 to 3.9% from 4.8%.

"We often know about ship withdrawals only a few months in advance, so the true net increase is typically a couple of percentage points lower than the gross increase, so we believe 2017E (estimate) could end up being negative for North American cruise capacity, which has never happened before," Farley said

RCCL orders fifth Quantum class ship at Meyer Werft

Details: Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen; Category: Top Headlines Top Headlines; Published: 03 November 2015 03 November 2015

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (RCCL), the world’s second largest cruise shipping group, announced that it has entered into an agreement with Meyer Werft in Germany to order a fifth Quantum-class ship for delivery in the autumn of 2020.

"It is such a pleasure to announce the order of another Quantum-class ship as we are welcoming Anthem of the Seas to North America," said Richard D. Fain, Chairman and CEO, RCCL, in a statement.

"These ships have been received with excitement, and performed exceptionally well, across the globe. We fully expect that momentum to continue as we add to this innovative class of ships."

"At Royal Caribbean we are focused on continuously improving efficiency and sustainability, and the fifth Quantum class vessel will be clear evidence of this," said Michael Bayley, President and CEO, Royal Caribbean International, the RCCL group’s contemporary market unit that operates the Quantum class vessels.

"Of equal importance is our ability to consistently surpass guest expectations, and we are harnessing the power of the latest technology to do so on this ship."

Based upon current ship orders, projected capital expenditures for full year 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 are $1.6 billion, $2.4 billion, $0.5 billion, $2.5 billion and $1.4 billion, respectively.

Capacity increases for 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 are expected to be 5.4%, 6.4%, 3.4%, 3.7% and 6.6%, respectively. These figures do not include potential ship sales or additions that we may elect to make in the future.