2018 a Record Breaking Year for Carnival Corporation
Namely, the cruise line’s net income for the full year 2018 was at USD 3.2 billion, rising from USD 2.6 billion reported in the prior year.
Revenues for the full year 2018 were USD 18.9 billion, USD 1.4 billion higher than the USD 17.5 billion in the prior year.
“We delivered strong fourth quarter earnings and record adjusted fourth quarter earnings to top off a record breaking year,” Arnold Donald, Carnival Corporation & plc President and Chief Executive Officer, said.
“In 2018, we grew net cruise revenue over five percent, achieving the highest revenue yields in our company’s history, and producing double-digit adjusted earnings growth despite a significant drag from fuel and currency.
“More importantly, we achieved double-digit return on invested capital in line with the target we established five years ago.”
Gross cruise revenues for the fourth quarter were USD 4.4 billion compared to USD 4.2 billion for the same period of 2017, representing an increase of 4.3 percent. In constant currency, net cruise revenues increased by 6.1 percent to USD 3.7 billion from USD 3.5 billion.
Looking ahead, Carnival Corporation said that cumulative advance bookings for full year 2019 “are considerably ahead of the prior year at prices that are in line with the prior year.”
Pricing on bookings taken since September has been running in line on a comparable basis to the prior year while booking volumes are significantly higher compared to the prior year. As a result, even with higher capacity, there is less inventory remaining for sale than at the same time last year.
“Based on continued strength in underlying fundamentals, we are poised to deliver another year of strong revenue and earnings growth, with booking volumes running significantly ahead of our higher capacity growth and net revenue yields expected to exceed last year’s record levels. We remain committed to driving demand in excess of measured capacity growth to continue the momentum into 2019 and beyond,” Donald said.
Based on current booking trends, the company expects full year 2019 constant currency net cruise revenues to be up by 5.5 percent, with capacity growth of 4.6 percent, and net revenue yields in constant currency expected to be up around 1.0 percent compared to the prior year.
Taking the above factors into consideration, the company expects full year 2019 adjusted earnings per share to be in the range of USD 4.50 to USD 4.80, compared to 2018 adjusted earnings per share of USD 4.26.
Press Releases: Carnival Cruise Line
Photo Courtesy: Carnival Cruise Line
