Everyone always scolds you when you say Princess is owned by Carnival..

[jennybenny]

Actually they didn't 'purchase' Princess (and other) cruise lines.

 

Certainly during the 1990's Carnival purchased a number of lines, including Cunard, HAL and Seabourn using cash obtained when the company was floated on the NYSE in the late 1980's.

 

The deal with P&O Princess (EPIC: POC) was different in that it was a merger.

 

What happened was that, in 2000, POC first demerged its UK ferry business from the cruise operations to create two separate businesses with shareholders receiving one share in each of the demerged business whilst retaining the EPIC POC for the cruise business.

 

The ferry business was then sold to a middle eastern sovereign wealth fund for cash which was all paid out to the shareholders.

 

At the time, it was intended that POC would merge with RCCL, but Carnival jumped in with an alternative merger proposal which offered a much more attractive deal for POC shareholders.

 

Faced with two suitors, and with the late arriving Carnival merger offering much better terms, the directors recommended the merger with Carnival.

 

No money changed hands, which is why it is incorrect to say they ' CCL purchased Princess' and it was all done by converting existing POC shares into newly created CCL shares.

 

The senior executive positions of the newly merged company were variously filled by people from both companies but with Micky Arison, the son of the founder of Carnival becoming CEO of the merged group.

 

However, because of the family history, and the importance of the name Carnival to the Arison family, there was never any doubt that the merged company would be called anything other than Carnival Cruise Corporation which exactly what happened, albeit with the shares of the newly merged company subsequently being traded on both the NYSE and LSE using the EPIC CCL whereas, prior to the merger, whilst POC had traded only on both the LSE and the NYSE, CCL shares were only tradable only on the NYSE.

 

And here I thought I knew my cruise line history!! That is an excellent explanation and run down!

Thank you!

[jennybenny]

If any cruise aficionados would like a good read on how the modern day cruise industry came to be and all machinations of the cruise line companies... pick up a copy of "Devils on the Deep Blue Sea" by Kristoffer Garin. To me, very interesting.

 

Thanks for the recommendation! I wish I could get it on a kindle! :)

[muggo11]

It is also fun for true cruise nerds to read Carnival Corp's annual report. Even the footnotes are fascinating and give you a glimpse into the business model.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD