Posted on 08/01/2022 2:42:40 PM PDT by Capt. Tom
Rivals Carnival Corp and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings are also trying to preserve cash in face of unexpected headwinds
Royal Caribbean Group has taken out another $1bn in debt as the entire cruise sector looks to preserve liquidity, in a bid to refinance a bond series coming due.
The New York-listed owner of 64 ships made a private offering of $900m senior convertible notes due 2025 on Monday. It also plans to offer another $135m in notes to principal buyers of the debt.
Cruise shares ‘diverge’ from sector’s recovering booking performance Read more “The purpose of the offering is to replace some of the existing near-term maturities of convertible bonds with new longer-term convertible bonds in a manner which is non-dilutive to shareholders as described below,” chief financial officer Naftali Holtz said in a statement.
Royal Caribbean plans to use the money from the notes sale to repurchase some of the $575m in senior convertible notes that it issued in October 2020 and the $1.15bn in bonds offered in the same month.
“The proposed transaction proactively addresses the near-term maturity of our existing convertible notes,” Holtz said.
But Miami-based Royal Caribbean, which had $3.3bn in liquidity as of 30 June, is not alone in using debt or equity to safeguard its available cash as the entire industry digs its way out of mounds of Covid-19 debt.
Rival Carnival Corp, which former chief operating officer Josh Weinstein took over as chief executive on Monday, offered $1bn in common stock on 20 July in a move that diluted shares for investors. Its liquidity stood at $7.5bn as of 31 May.
On Friday, competitor Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, whose liquidity stood at $3.1bn on 31 March, extended a $1bn loan facility with Apollo Capital Management by seven months to April 2022. Norwegian took out the loan in November 2021.
Pulling levers But the debt-burdened cruise juggernauts are pulling financial levers for a very good reason, analysts said.
“They all want to address next year’s bond maturities ahead of time and have enough liquidity and enough lead time,” Tigress Financial Partners Ivan Feinseth told TradeWinds.
“The whole equation is based on the ramp-up of revenue and how quickly cash flow can increase so they can pay down debt and straighten their balance sheets.”
Royal Caribbean’s debt totalled $20bn at the end of the first quarter, while Carnival’s debt stood at $35.1bn at the midway point in fiscal year 2022, which ends 30 November. Norwegian is $13.6bn in the hole.
Royal Caribbean achieves pre-pandemic positive cash flow while returning fleet to service
The cruise ship owners, which share about 80% of the global market, are making a slow recovery from the pandemic, but they need the extra liquidity in the face of unexpected headwinds.
“The war in Ukraine did not help. Neither did the international havoc with air travel,” Infinity Research analyst Assia Georgieva told TradeWinds.
“We also had a disruption to wave season during the first six weeks of the year, so many summer voyages for these important and highly profitable destinations did not take place, or were done on a shorter notice.”
Other challenges such as inflation, high fuel costs and passenger reluctance to travel to Europe and Alaska also played factors in why owners need the extra cash on their books, she said.
I don't think they are all going to pull out of this debt spiral. Especially with the recession, which I expect to be worse this winter, and paying for those new cruise ships, amongst other headwinds.
I feel people will aways go on cruises but not to the extend they did prior to the so- called headwinds. -Tom
I surely hope the cruise industry will recover from the avalanche of industry obstacles over the past 2+ years. It is a great way to island-hop the Caribbean, Hawaii, tour coastal New England and the Mediterranean.
What say you. -Tom
“The purpose of the offering is to replace some of the existing near-term maturities of convertible bonds with new longer-term convertible bonds in a manner which is non-dilutive to shareholders as described below,” chief financial officer Naftali Holtz said in a statement.
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Translation. We got a new loan to make payments on the old loan which were coming due.
The “free” cruises thru casinos offers I get are not as good before COVID.
Have to use in 3-4 months, far less choices etc
Just did Boston to Bermuda no complaints….except for having to go back out to sea while docked in Bermuda due to tropical storm going thru. Got tossed around pretty good but not unbearable. Turned into two days trips instead of 3 days docked.
Captain Merrill Stubing to Purser, Doc, Gopher, Bartender, chief Engineer and all:
I am sorry but there will be corporate cutbacks reflected in your next pay envelope. I’ve ordered a 24 hour watch for crew taking the overboard jump route. Not worth trying.
I’m confused - didn’t these big cruise lines see their stocks jump up significantly last week???
If you have the time and money, you will aways be able to do a cruise.
I just think the big 3 are in such debt now, they are going to have to do things like a chaper 11 bankruptcy , where they stay in business, but the court keeps the creditors at bay while they try to straighten out the problem. -Tom
I like Royal Caribbean the best of all the cruise lines; but as long as they have any requirement that specifically mentions covid, I won’t cruise again.
If they can get past the covid restrictions I think they’ll be booked full. If that saves them, I do not know, but they should be bringing in profits top pay off debts.
The cruise ships are full. Since many cruises are booked far in advance I wouldn’t worry yet.
MSC (Italian) is making a huge push into the US market that may really hurt the primarily US cruise lines. There is only so much money to go around. We are taking the MSC Meriviglia from Rome to Miami in late September. They have a potential edge against a recession because they also run a fleet of container ships and can possibly subsidize the cruise ships with the cargo line.
MSC is, at least from what I’ve seen, undercutting prices. The ships are nice like Royal but with strange shows and entertainment. But, in a lot of ways they are better than Carnival. So, think Royal Caribbean ship with Carnival buffet. And people haven’t taken them before so they attract the curious. They also match the status cruisers have on other cruise lines. So Carnival Platinum members get the MSC equivalent from the first cruise.
Just my two cents worth.
“If they can get past the covid restrictions I think they’ll be booked full.”
From what I’ve heard: The cruise lines easily “can get past the covid restrictions”. They are “restrictions” because the cruise lines call them that. They don’t HAVE to abide by the CDC “suggestions”; they choose to do so.
They simply agree that they’ll ignore CDC and go back to business as usual through January 2020.
If they made it so they don’t seem like floating tombs full of elderly zombies maybe you ger crowds would go. Nut then again the cheap “you g” cruises “Carnival” turn in to a friday night rap concert...
Cap’n Tom:
Since you follow cruise line doings closely, I’d like to ask you a couple of questions, if you know:
- When a ship cruises now, and there’s an outbreak during the cruise, do they freak out and abort the cruise, or just isolate the people with COVID?
- When these cruises go into port, can the passengers get off and mingle and shop and go on short expeditions, like they used to pre-COVID? Or do they have to stay in herded, cruiseline mandated expereinces?
- Because of COVID, do you know if ships have updated their air filtration systems, like airlines have (supposedly)? On a ship, AFAIK, there are a dozen or so big HVAC systems supporting their share of the rooms. So, there’s a lot of potential for mixing of aerosols between rooms. Have they done anything about it?
- Do cruise ships currently operate with full passenger loads, or have they kept them restricted so they can have more spacing around the ship (e.g. dining areas, decks, night club)
If you have any opinions, I’d be grateful for them. I do invest, and I too can’t see how these companies climb through their debt mountains absent some dilution by selling more shares.
I can read a balance sheet, but I haven’t been on a cruise since a few years before COVID, and don’t know whether operations have recovered. Some of the items I mentioned directly impact profit; some go to the desirability of taking a cruise, which will indirectly affect revenues.
Thanks.
Just did Boston to Bermuda no complaints….except for having to go back out to sea while docked in Bermuda due to tropical storm going thru. Got tossed around pretty good but not unbearable. Turned into two days trips instead of 3 days docked.
My Daughter is going on a cruise Monday Aug 8th out of Florida on the Royal Caribbean ship "Freedom of the Seas"
It was a casino freebie, she paid a $200 port fee plus airfare round trip to Boston. She got a good cabin and figured it was worth it. - Tom
They fail to mention that vaxing being required is killing a lot of their business.
I’ll try to answer some of your questions.
Unless there is an incredibly large outbreak, they quarantine the passengers.
It depends on what ship and port they are in whether you can go off on your own, or need to be in a ship approved shore excursion.
Supposedly they have the latest air conditioning systems, but who really knows.
As far as going with full passengers, they are claiming that now, but experiences shows some ships are far from filled.
Since they cannot stop the vaccinated and boosted passengers from coming down with COVID, they changed the rules recently, where the ships won’t report the COVID outbreaks, and you have to inquire with the cruise line to find out how many people had covid on your trip. -Tom
HA! You OBVIOUSLY are NOT a CRUISER!! Only HOLLAND has ANCIENT people on them. And Carnival is for young drunk kids. There are LOTS of cruises lines in between!
Before you INVEST, go on a DECENT CRUISE LINE....CELEBRITY....ROYAL.....PRINCESS! Cruising has been fabulous for us.....we’ve done 90......and 9 since the COVID restrictions have been lifted.
The FREEDOM is a great ship.....the SPHINX LOUNGE is great.
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