Carnival expects to burn about $650M a month for 2020 second half

Cruise operator posts second-quarter net loss of $4.4 billion

Carnival Corp., which has been battered by the Covid-19 pandemic, said it expects to burn about $650 million a month for the second half of the year as many of its ships remain idle, while it sees a loss for the rest of the year.

The cruise operator on Thursday posted a second-quarter net loss of $4.4 billion, or $6.07 a share, compared with a profit of $451 million, or 65 cents a share, in the same period last year. The loss includes $2 billion in non-cash impairment charges.

Adjusted losses were $3.30 a share, steeper than the $1.52 adjusted loss per share analysts polled by FactSet had expected.

Ticker Security Last Change Change %
CCL CARNIVAL CORP. 16.34 -0.85 -4.97%

For the quarter ended May 31, revenue fell to $700 million from $4.8 billion in the year-ago period. Analysts were looking for $809.1 million.

The company ended the second quarter with $7.6 billion in liquidity, it said.

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Assuming all ships are idled, Carnival said it sees ongoing ship and administrative expenses to be about $250 million a month. The company said it can't predict when it can resume normal operations, and that a prolonged pause would hurt its liquidity. Carnival said it expects to refinance about $2.4 billion in debt maturities to be due over the next year, half of which matures in the second half of this year.

In this Feb. 11, 2020 photo, the Grand Princess cruise ship passes the Golden Gate Bridge as it arrives from Hawaii in San Francisco. (Scott Strazzante/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)

Carnival said about half of customers of canceled sailings requested cash refunds as of May 31. The company also offers refunds in the form of future cruise credits at a premium, a measure that would help maintain its cash reserves.

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Carnival said its advanced bookings for 2021, as of May 31, are within historical ranges but at prices that are lower by low to mid-single digits. For the six weeks ended May 31, the company said about two-thirds of 2021 bookings were new bookings, while remaining 2021 bookings were from customers who used their future cruise credits.

The company said it had $2.9 billion in customer deposits as of May 31, with $475 million related to cruises for the second half of the year. It expects any customer-deposit decline for the second half of 2020 to be less than the decline in the second quarter, Carnival said.

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Carnival is set to resume eight cruises on its Carnival Cruise Line unit starting Aug. 1. However, it has canceled more sailings on its other cruise lines, as the Canadian government has extended its sailing restriction for cruise ships carrying more than 100 passengers through Oct. 31.

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