Carnival sales plunge 85% as coronavirus docks ships

Carnival Corp. lost $4.37 billion in the second quarter as the COVID-19 pandemic forced the cruise operator to cancel its voyages.

The Miami-based company's revenue plunged 85 percent from a year ago to $740 million, driving its loss to $6.07 per share. Wall Street analysts surveyed by Refinitiv were expecting revenue of $391.3 million and an adjusted loss of $2.26 a share.

Ticker	Security	Last	Change	Change %
CCL	CARNIVAL CORP.	25.43	+0.29	+1.15%

“We have been transitioning the fleet into a prolonged pause and right-sizing our shoreside operations,” CEO Arnold Donald said in a statement.

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Carnival sold one ship in June and has five other sales in place in addition to preliminary agreements for the disposal of three more ships. In total, the company plans to shed 13 ships or 9 percent of its capacity.

Additionally, the scheduled delivery of a total of nine ships for fiscal year 2020 and 2021 has been delayed, with only five deliveries occurring in the upcoming fiscal year. Ships scheduled for delivery in 2022 and 2023 have been put off until an undisclosed future date.

In order to bolster its balance sheet amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Carnival reduced operating costs by more than $7 billion annualized and lowered planned capital expenditures for the next 18 months by more than $5 billion.

A series of transactions, which raised more than $10 billion, gives Carnival increased balance sheet flexibility as the company expects to burn $650 million per month during the second half of fiscal year 2020.

Carnival had $6.9 billion of cash on its books at the end of the second quarter.

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Carnival announced on Thursday that its German unit AIDA will resume operations in August. The company plans to phase in restarts of the remainder of its operations.

Shares tumbled 71 percent this year through Thursday, significantly worse than the S&P 500's 2.43 percent decline.