Silversea seeks $550 Million through bond issue at 7.25%

Travel Pulse reports Silversea putting notes up for offering in the amount of $550 Million at 7.25% due 2025.

This was also in the London Daily Telegraph late last week, travel pulse story is dated January 18, 2017.

 

Interestingly the article states a good deal of the money to pay for the Silver Muse, to repurchase the Silver Shadow and to pre-fund capital expenditure requirements.

 

It goes on to explore the present financial situation of Silversea and speculates about the company's future .

Pray tell--What does it say about the financial condition and the future?

Edited January 23, 2017 by Hotel CA

Dull and dim.

Sorry I have no idea how to post the article but sure some tech person can find it at travelpulse.com

 

Speculation about might SS be purchased by Crystal Regent or Seabourne, but they all have there own growth and build programs, so why would they !!

 

This is the first time SS has sought external money publicly before, although clearly something private has happened if the Shadow is not presently SS owned and the Discoverer is leased.

There is an interesting credit review of the bond issue by Moody's, which gives an annual revenue figure (assumed to be 2016) of over $460m.

 

Based on a current total of 2246 guests across the fleet that would imply an average revenue of over $560 per guest per day if fully utilised.

Pray tell--What does it say about the financial condition and the future?

 

Silver Spectre: There is an interesting credit review of the bond issue by Moody's' date=' which gives an annual revenue figure (assumed to be 2016) of over $460m. [/quote']

 

Agree with Silver Spectre that looking at the Moody's financial ratings services website is of value. Issued today, they have this headline: "Moody's upgrades Silversea's sr secured notes rating to B2"

 

Here were the top highlights from the lead of their posting: "Moody's Investors Service today upgraded Silversea Cruise Finance Ltd. senior secured notes rating to B2 from B3. At the same time, Moody's affirmed Silversea's Corporate Family Rating at B2 and Probability of Default Rating at B3-PD. The rating outlook remains stable."

 

As best I re-call from being a regular reader of the Wall Street Journal and other international publications, many other corporations around the world are borrowing money all of the time. Some do it via bank loans. Some use bonds. Some do stock issues, etc. Personally, I am not a finance expert, but my sense is that very few corporations are able to avoid borrowing money in some way to finance major capital projects via various borrowing and finance methods. It is also a seven-year bond, which says something better than if it was a 15-, 25- or 30-year bond. As I re-call some corporations and/or governments only get "C", "junk", etc., status ratings for their finance offerings. They also noted this aspect: "the incremental earnings from the Silver Muse launch continues to support an improvement in credit metrics".

 

None of this means that Silversea has 100% certain and unlimited, perfect financing. BUT, it does not seem that "dire" and/or unusual for a business to borrow money for a major capital project.

 

Full story at:

https://www.moodys.com/research/Moodys-upgrades-Silverseas-sr-secured-notes-rating-to-B2--PR_360667

 

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

 

From our Jan. 25-Feb. 20, 2015, Amazon River-Caribbean combo sailing over 26 days that started in Barbados, here is the link below to that live/blog. Lots of great visuals from this amazing Brazil river and these various Caribbean Islands (Dutch ABC's, St. Barts, Dominica, Grenada, etc.) that we experienced. Check it out at:

http://www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2157696

Now at 47,068 views for these postings.

It has been known for sometime that the Shadow was leased + SS got lease financing for the Muse almost certainly as there was lease financing for 3 new build ships in 2014.Intersetingly that deal was for 3 new builds and we haven't heard anything about numbers 2 and 3.

http://o.canada.com/travel/is-new-in-silverseas-vocabulary

Intersetingly that deal was for 3 new builds and we haven't heard anything about numbers 2 and 3.

I wonder if the conversion of Silver Cloud into an Expedition ship became #2 and Manfredi is waiting to see how the new Muse performs before placing an order for a sister ship which would be #3? Although, I guess, one could say that the Muse is a sister ship to the Spirit as they both look so similar, other than the dining set-up.

Just google "Silversea bond offering" and several articles will come up, including the one from Travel Pulse. The rather negative ending remarks struck me as rather misleading and complete conjecture.

The rather negative ending remarks struck me as rather misleading and complete conjecture.

Totally agree.

 

 

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As a private company, the primary shareholder(s) can really take any dividend they like.. regardless of the cash flow or the profitability.

Public companies (at least in theory..) pay a dividend to the share holders when everything else is in the black.

As a private company, the primary shareholder(s) can really take any dividend they like.. regardless of the cash flow or the profitability.

Public companies (at least in theory..) pay a dividend to the share holders when everything else is in the black.

 

Whether this is possible is highly dependent on local law. So in this case it is depending on the law where SilverSea is formally seated.

 

E.g. in the Netherlands, taking too much dividend and in that, endangering the company is not possible. As a primary shareholder, you have a lifelong liability towards any dividend you have taken out of the company. If the judge determines you have taken the money while you could reasonably expect that it would endanger the company, you will have to give the money back to the company. Winning such a case as primary shareholder is very, very difficult as you need to prove you could not have foreseen the trouble the company was heading towards at the time you decided to have the dividend paid.

(at least, this is how my accountant explained it when I wanted to pay dividend to myself from my company).

 

Other countries may have similar laws.

Just google "Silversea bond offering" and several articles will come up, including the one from Travel Pulse. The rather negative ending remarks struck me as rather misleading and complete conjecture.

 

Appreciate these additional comments and background. Agree very much with the above comment on the Travel Pulse "reporting". In re-reading the original article this morning, the last seven paragraphs after the question of "WHY?" is raised result in few actual, hard, specific facts. Those final seven paragraphs are mostly all just personal speculation and guessing!! Yes, "CONJECTURE" is an excellent way to describe such "reporting". When you look at the background for the author, Jason Leppert, he is a very interested and active cruising guy. Great, but he has virtually no background or expertise for such complex international corporate financing issues. Such travel writers can speculate about their personal theories and guesses, but they are rather meaningless for journalistic substance, in my opinion.

 

This morning, I did a re-check on Google News about this financial transaction. Nothing in the Wall Street Journal, etc., etc.!! If this financing was that dire and/or unique, I think that there would have been more reporting than just one travel writer's speculative theories and guesses on future cruise line mergers and/or buy-outs.

 

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

 

AFRICA?!!?: Lots of interesting and dramatic pictures can be seen from my latest live/blog at:

http://www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2310337

Now at 28,757 views for this reporting and visual sharing that includes Cape Town, all along the South Africa coast, Mozambique, Victoria Falls/Zambia and Botswana's famed Okavango Delta area.

Thank you Terry for your analysis and reporting. I always enjoy your postings and your positive outlook on things.