Industry Insider

 

Carnival Names Randall Weisenburger to Board of Directors
Carnival Corp. said Randall Weisenburger, executive vice president and CFO for Omnicom Group Inc., an advertising, marketing and corporate communications company, has been appointed to its board of directors.

Royal Caribbean’s 4Q Earnings Tumble 98 Percent
Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. said Thursday that its fourth-quarter earnings tumbled 98 percent, missing Wall Street’s expectations, as cruise bookings fell and the company’s fuel costs were higher than expected.

The company also issued guidance for the first quarter of 2009 and the full year that fell well short of analysts’ expectations. Cruise pricing remains very weak, although bookings have started to stabilize, the company said.

Royal Caribbean’s shares dropped $1.21 or 13.4 percent, to close at $7.85 on Thursday. The stock has traded between $5.97 and $41.99 during the past 52 weeks. The stock fell as low as $6.64 during the day, a drop of more than 25 percent.

For the quarter ended Dec. 31, net income fell to $1.4 million, or 1 cent per share, from $70.8 million, or 33 cents per share, a year ago. Revenue dipped 2 percent to $1.46 billion from $1.49 billion in the fourth quarter of 2007.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters forecast earnings of 7 cents per share on revenue of $1.46 billion. While crude oil prices receded during the quarter, Royal Caribbean said the prices it paid at the pump lagged those declines. The company also booked an unexpected insurance charge of $13.3 million.

Royal Caribbean said its net yield dropped 5.9 percent during the quarter as the financial crisis in September cut into cruise bookings. Net yield reflects cruise revenue earned by the company without some variable costs like commissions and transportation.

The company said unfavorable foreign currency rates contributed to a steeper net yield drop than its anticipated decline of 4 percent to 5 percent.

New regulations on sewage pollution from ships over 400 GT
The regulations will help the UK control a shipping industry, which the Government believes could be responsible for 5% of all coastal sewage pollution incidents. This is welcome news to the campaigners at Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) who have been concerned by the length of time it has taken for international agreements made by MARPOL on ‘prevention of pollution by sewage from ships’ to be transposed into UK law.

The new law targets ships that are over 400 gross tonnes (GT) in weight or those less than 400GT that are certified to carry more than 15 people. It only applies to those UK flagged ships that leave the UK on international voyages but will also apply to similar ships, which are not UK flagged, if they are in UK waters.

One industry where there will have to be whole scale changes is the cruise ships industry. For too long cruise ships were able to travel the oceans with plumes of raw sewage in their brown wake but the new legislation will help prevent this in the future.

Raw sewage from cruise ships is similar to standard sewage from the land. It contains bacteria and viruses hazardous to humans, can reduce the oxygen levels in the water, can cloud water preventing light reaching the sea bed (essential for most coral growth) and can introduce harmful levels of nutrients to the environment which could lead to potentially toxic algal blooms.

A typical cruise ship today carries around 2,000 passengers, 900 crew and producing 25,000 gallons of human waste a day! Cruises have become a lot more affordable and increasing leisure time means they are becoming an annual fixture in the holiday plans of millions of people. Many UK ports are expecting to see an increase in cruise ship visits this year.

Newly built cruise ships will have already fitted on board state-of-the-art sewage treatment plants, so it is now just the older, smaller cruise ships that are upgrading before they will get issued with sewage prevention certificates.

One slight failing of the legislation still allows for untreated sewage to be discharged when 12 miles off the coast, if ships have approved sewage holding tanks. However with the cost of on-board sewage treatment plants now comparatively cheap to a few years ago it seems the majority of ships have invested in the treatment plants rather than ‘chance their arm’ in exceeding the capacity of their sewage holding tank when inshore of the 12 mile limit.

The new regulations also provide for inspections to be carried out by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA). Any ship covered by the 2008 Regulations is subject to Flag State Inspection if it is a UK ship, or to Port State Control if it is a foreign ship.

These inspections will help verify whether the ship has discharged any sewage in violation of the provisions of these regulations; that the ship holds a valid sewage prevention certificate or to investigate any operation where there are clear grounds for believing that the master or the crew of a ship are not familiar with the on-board procedures for preventing pollution by sewage.

Andy Cummins, SAS Campaigns Manager says: “We have been waiting since 2004 for these new regulations to come into effect and now they are here we hope to see an end to sewage pollution from the repeat polluters in the shipping industry. With the majority of vessels now choosing to fit approved sewage treatment plants the discharged effluent will be clean, safe and meet criteria above even that used for Blue Flag beaches. Whilst we don’t think there will be too many vessels relying on using just a sewage holding tank we would still urge travelers hoping to book a cruise from the UK to check in advance that the ship they would be sailing on has an approved sewage treatment plant on board”.

Compagnie des Iles du Ponant has changed its name to Compagnie du Ponant.

Twenty years after its creation, the Marseilles-based Compagnie des Iles du Ponant has changed its name to Compagnie du Ponant. Shorter and more incisive, this new name is ‘easier to remember and understand abroad, whereas it remains faithful to its French identity,’ comments Véronique Saade, deputy gm of the company.

A new signature, ‘Yacht Cruises,’ will be linked to the name to stress its luxury positioning and the intimacy, refinement, size and service offered by the various ships.

Also, a new logo is aimed at lifting the company’s visual identity. The leading cruise operator under the French flag and part of the Marseilles-based CMA-CGM group since 2004, Compagnie du Ponant's fleet includes the three-masted sailing ship Le Ponant (64 passengers), the yacht Le Levant (90 passengers) and Le Diamant (220 passengers).

Under construction are a pair of 284-passenger luxury yachts, L’Austral and Le Boreal, being built by Fincantieri in Ancona and due for delivery in March and July 2010.

Joe Ueberroth steps down and Art Rodney takes over with Ambassadors to focus on cruise
Board member and cruise veteran Art Rodney is replacing Joe Ueberroth as chairman, and the Newport Beach, Calif.-based company intends to consolidate its cruise and corporate headquarters in Seattle.

A search is under way to replace ceo Joe Ueberroth, who also formerly served as chairman, and Laura Tuthill, cfo. The rest of the corporate executive team, including vp corporate development and general counsel Joseph McCarthy, is leaving.

Ambassadors International announced plans to sell its principal non-Windstar Cruises assets in order to focus on the small-ship luxury segment. Stephens Inc. has been engaged to sell Ambassadors’ marine division, including its marina construction and marine operations businesses, and its travel and events division. 

Ueberroth will remain on the board and has been asked to facilitate the bidding process for the marine division. Tuthill will leave April 30 and McCarthy on Sept. 30. Both will assist in the company’s transition to Seattle.

The board requested Ueberroth’s participation in the bidding process for the marine group, Rodney said, ‘since he knows the business well and can move quickly, although we also will actively solicit bids from other interested parties.’

Ambassadors recently shut down its loss-making Majestic America Line brand.

Rodney joined the board last April. His career includes positions as founding president of Disney Cruise Line and Crystal Cruises, and president and cfo of Princess Cruises.

AMIE shares closed at 43 cents, down 2 cents. The stock has traded as high as $13.78 in the past 52 weeks.

Services held for John Seabrook -set RCCL on it's current course
Services were held Saturday in South Carolina for John Seabrook, a colorful business leader who played a key role in changing the course of Royal Caribbean Cruises two decades ago.

Seabrook died at his home in Aiken, S.C., on Feb. 11. He was 91.

Born into the prominent Seabrook Farms family, in the 1970s Seabrook became the chief executive of International Utilities, a company he built into a diversified global corporation. Among its subsidiaries was the shipping firm Gotaas-Larsen, one of three Norwegian entities that controlled Royal Caribbean.

Royal Caribbean chairman and ceo Richard Fain began his career at IU under Seabrook before being transferred to an executive role at Gotaas-Larsen in London in the 1970s. He began serving as an outside director on the Royal Caribbean board in 1981.

In 1988, Fain agreed to lead the combined Royal Admiral Cruises as chairman and ceo. Shortly after, Seabrook decided to sell the Gotaas-Larsen stake, putting Royal Admiral in play. When the co-owning Skaugen family also opted to sell, it looked as though Carnival was going to take control.

But the third co-owners, the Wilhelmsen family, exercised their right of first refusal for the shares of their former partners and simultaneously sold 50% of the company to the Pritzker and Ofer families.

Apart from his business career, Seabrook was a dashing character, a dapper dresser, a horseman and a bon vivant.

His obituary in a South Carolina newspaper tells of a romance with the actress Eva Gabor prior to his marriage to Elizabeth Ann Toomey. He met his future wife aboard the Constitution en route to Monaco for the wedding of Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier.

Seabrook is survived by four children including Bruce Seabrook of Miami, who runs The Wine Messenger and who formerly worked for Royal Caribbean and for Greyhound Leisure Services.