Royal Caribbean Acquires Controling Interest in Silversea
#1
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Join Date: May 2011
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Royal Caribbean Acquires Controling Interest in Silversea
Interesting announcement that Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd is paying $1B to acquire a controlling interest in Silversea. Silversea was the largest luxury line not owned by a larger umbrella corporation. With the acquisition adds RCCL a supposedly ultra-luxury line and a small fleet of expedition ships to their Celebrity, Royal Caribbean International, and Azamara lines. Naturally there is a bit of angst among Silversea loyalists as they worry about that this might mean in terms of potential degradation of the Silversea experience now controlled by a larger bottom line driven corporation. Likewise Azamara loyalists are concerned about what this might mean to the long term survival of Azamara. While not exactly the same level product there are a lot of similarities between Silversea and Azamara and Azamara up until now has been pushed as RCCL’s luxury line. Some point to the fact that the three Azamara ships are older rehabbed ships and RCCL has not seen fit to program or plan replacements or additional ships. Time will tell.
#2
Join Date: Jul 2004
Posts: 96
From what I understand, some Silversea loyalists have been worried about how Silversea has been degrading over the last several years. There are those who are even expressing optimism that the degradation in progress might slow with a new influx of investment from RCL.
But definitely: Time will tell.
But definitely: Time will tell.
#3
Join Date: Feb 2005
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From what I understand, some Silversea loyalists have been worried about how Silversea has been degrading over the last several years. There are those who are even expressing optimism that the degradation in progress might slow with a new influx of investment from RCL.
But definitely: Time will tell.
But definitely: Time will tell.
#4
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That’s very true. We’ve taken eight cruises on Silversea since 2012 and indeed there has been some degradation. I will say the Silversea acquisition by RCCL is a bit of a head scratcher as Silversea launched their new Muse this year, stretched the Spirit and basically “Musified” it, repurposed and strengthened the Cloud to be a expedition ship, and announced the ordering of another Muse-clone ship to be called the Dawn. Sounds like a healthy company but I think they had secured something like a $500M line of credit to make all this happen and they have to service that debt so maybe the influx of $1B makes sense. The cruising industry is also a bit like the airline industry where there are fewer and fewer truly standalone lines. I don’t know the exact percentage but between the umbrella Carnival Corporation and Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines corporations they pretty well have a liplock on the industry.
#5
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Appears that RCCL's investment strategy in Silversea may be borrowing from the playbook of CCL's eventual acquisition of Seabourn:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seabou...e_Line#History
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seabou...e_Line#History
#6
Join Date: Jul 2004
Posts: 96
Regardless:
Carnival = 47.4%
Royal Caribbean (including Silversea) = 23.3%
NCL = 9.5%
MSC = 7.2%
(by passengers)
The entire rest of the cruise industry worldwide is less than 13%, and that even includes some not-so-small cruise lines like Disney.
#7
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It is a high percentage, but I think it is worth including NCL and MSC. Once you are considering all four corporations, you can safely say that the rest of the industry is substantially marginal.
Regardless:
Carnival = 47.4%
Royal Caribbean (including Silversea) = 23.3%
NCL = 9.5%
MSC = 7.2%
(by passengers)
The entire rest of the cruise industry worldwide is less than 13%, and that even includes some not-so-small cruise lines like Disney.
Regardless:
Carnival = 47.4%
Royal Caribbean (including Silversea) = 23.3%
NCL = 9.5%
MSC = 7.2%
(by passengers)
The entire rest of the cruise industry worldwide is less than 13%, and that even includes some not-so-small cruise lines like Disney.
Last edited by Randyk47; Jun 18, 2018 at 7:57 am
#9
Join Date: Jul 2004
Posts: 96