Coronavirus impact assessment: 17 March 2020
On the day that chancellor Rishi Sunak unveiled £330bn of spending to help the British economy through the current coronavirus outbreak, several companies have gone into shutdown. Laura Ashley seems to have hit a permanent roadblock. The cruise liners have seen activities grind to a halt and the current focus for all operators will be on debt management. Can they survive the current crisis intact?
Global cruise ship passengers have grown from 17.8 million to 30 million over the past decade, an annual growth rate of 5.4%, with revenues for the major operators having grown even faster. The whole sector is now in a state of limbo as ships are emptied and company management wrestle with a mountain of debt. The industry is dominated by two large operators whose combined fleets make up approximately 60% of the global market of approximately 278 ocean cruise ships. Carnival (LON: CNV) and its smaller US listed rival Royal Caribbean (US:RCL), which dominate the world of cruising, have seen their share…