In a move to further expand its European and Latin American operations, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (NYSE: RCL; Oslo) today announced its agreement to purchase Pullmantur S.A., a Madrid-based cruise and tour operator.
Miami – Royal Caribbean expects the acquisition to be completed by the fourth quarter of 2006, subject to regulatory approvals.
Pullmantur, formed in 1971, is the largest cruise operator in
Spain. It has two primary business interests: cruises and tour
operations. Its cruise division consists of five ships operating in
Europe and Latin America. Its tour operations sells travel packages
to Spanish guests – including hotel and flights – primarily to
Caribbean resorts, and sells travel packages to Europe aimed at Latin American customers. Pullmantur also has a small air business that operates three aircraft in support of its cruise and tour. Pullmantur has offices in Spain and Portugal, with approximately 2,600 employees, and will be Royal Caribbean’s first wholly-owned European brand.
Royal Caribbean has signed an agreement with the shareholders of
Pullmantur to buy all of the capital stock of the company for 430
million euro, plus Pullmantur’s net debt of approximately 270 million
euro. Royal Caribbean has obtained a committed bridge facility to
support the purchase. As part of the transaction, Pullmantur will be
withdrawing from all Cuba-related activities prior to closing.
„Pullmantur offers a terrific strategic opportunity for Royal
Caribbean to further grow our presence in the European and Latin
American markets in a major and tangible way,“ said Richard D. Fain, chairman and chief executive officer of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. „We have made significant inroads into these regions through our
Royal Caribbean International and Celebrity Cruises brands, and this combination will allow us to accelerate our growth in these markets. Pullmantur will remain an independent brand under the Royal Caribbean umbrella, keeping its distinctive and successful customer experience.“
„Our partnership with Royal Caribbean is a bold strategic move
that will enable us to further grow our highly successful brand,“
said Alfonso Lopez Perez, general manager of Pullmantur. „This is an excellent opportunity to align ourselves with one of the world’s
largest and most successful companies in the travel industry. We are
very familiar with Royal Caribbean, and I know our two organizations will both benefit from the combination.“
Royal Caribbean expects this acquisition to be neutral to
marginally accretive to 2007 earnings per share and accretive
thereafter.
Regarding 2006 earnings, the company continues to expect full year
Net Yields to increase in the range of 3% to 4% as compared to 2005, and earnings to be in the range of US$2.90 to US$3.00 per share, excluding any impact from Pullmantur. Additionally, the company now expects earnings for the third quarter of 2006 to be in the range of US$1.55 to US$1.60 per share, based on slightly stronger yield expectations of an increase of approximately 3% over the third quarter of 2005. The exact impact of Pullmantur on the company’s fourth quarter earnings depends on the timing of the closing and finalization of acquisition adjustments. Since the fourth quarter is traditionally Pullmantur’s weakest quarter, any impact is likely to be negative.
The company has scheduled a conference call at 1 pm Eastern
Daylight Time today to discuss the purchase and outlook update. The dial-in numbers are: Domestic – +1-877-874-9961, and International – +1-706-634-0610. The call can also be listened to, either live or on
a delayed basis, on the company’s investor relations web site at www.rclinvestor.com.
About Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.
Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. is a global cruise vacation company
that operates Royal Caribbean International and Celebrity Cruises,
with a combined total of 29 ships in service and six under
construction. The company also offers unique land-tour vacations in
Alaska, Canada and Europe through its cruise-tour division.
Additional information can be found on www.royalcaribbean.com,
www.celebrity.com or www.rclinvestor.com.
About Pullmantur S.A
Pullmantur S.A., founded in 1971, is a Madrid-based cruise and
tour operator. With five ships in service, the company is the largest
cruise operator in Spain. It has offices in Spain and Portugal, with
approximately 2,600 employees, and targets both European and Latin American guests.
Certain statements in this news release are forward-looking
statements. Forward-looking statements do not guarantee future
performance and may involve risks, uncertainties and other factors,
which could cause our actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from the future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied in those forward-looking
statements. Such factors include general economic and business
conditions, vacation industry competition, including cruise vacation
industry competition, changes in vacation industry capacity,
including over capacity in the cruise vacation industry, the impact
of tax laws and regulations affecting our business or our principal
shareholders, the impact of changes in other laws and regulations
affecting our business, the impact of pending or threatened
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repairs, negative incidents involving cruise ships including those
involving the health and safety of passengers, reduced consumer
demand for cruises as a result of any number of reasons, including
geo-political and economic uncertainties, the unavailability of air
service, armed conflict, terrorist attacks and the resulting concerns
over safety and security aspects of traveling, the impact of the
spread of contagious diseases, our ability to obtain financing on
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in our stock price or principal shareholders, the impact of changes
in operating and financing costs, including changes in foreign
currency, interest rates, fuel, food, payroll, insurance and security
costs, the implementation of regulations in the United States
requiring United States citizens to obtain passports for travel to
additional foreign destinations, weather, and other factors described
in further detail in Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.’s filings with the
Securities and Exchange Commission. The above examples are not
exhaustive and new risks emerge from time to time. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking
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otherwise. In addition, certain financial measures in this news
release constitute non-GAAP financial measures as defined by
Regulation G. A reconciliation of these items can be found on our
investor relations website at www.rclinvestor.com.
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