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Carnival Corporation & Plc and Iberojet Sign Letter of Intent to Form Joint Venture for Large-Scale Spanish Cruise Operation
New Company will Expand Iberojet's Existing Cruise Business, Serve Rapidly Growing Spanish Market
MIAMI, Feb. 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Carnival Corporation & plc(NYSE/LSE: CCL; NYSE: CUK), the largest cruise vacation company in the world,and Orizonia Corporacion, Spain's largest travel company which operates itsown cruise fleet under its Iberojet division, today announced the signing of aletter of intent to form a joint venture to operate and expand the existingIberojet Cruceros brand in Spain.
Iberojet Cruceros operates two modern cruise ships, the 834-passengerGrand Voyager, built in 2000, and the 1,196-passenger Grand Mistral,constructed in 1999, which represent the newest ships in the contemporarySpanish cruise market. The new joint venture would eventually be comprised ofa multi-ship fleet serving the rapidly expanding Spanish vacation sector.
Under the proposed agreement, the two existing vessels would betransferred to the joint venture company. The intention is to grow that fleetover the next several years through the acquisition of existing tonnage fromCarnival Corporation & plc's current fleet.
"Iberojet operates a very successful cruise brand, along with a wide rangeof quality and affordable vacation products, which have garnered extremelystrong brand awareness with Spanish consumers. With their extensive experiencemarketing in Spain, combined with a keen understanding of Spanish vacationtrends, Iberojet provides a solid partnership for expanding in one of thefastest-growing segments of the European vacation industry," said MickyArison, Carnival Corporation & plc's chairman and CEO.
Commented Pedro de Esteban, Orizonia's chairman and managing director ofThe Carlyle Group, Orizonia's principal shareholder, "We are very proud inpartnering with Carnival, the world's leader in the cruise vacation business.With Carnival's support and expertise, we intend to continue expanding ouroperations, adding high quality vessels and providing specialized top servicesto our Spanish customers."
Added Gabriel M. Subias, Orizonia Corporacion's CEO, "It is a greatopportunity for us and Iberojet Cruceros to join forces and develop astrategic alliance with Carnival, a world leader in cruising. Through theyears, we have always enjoyed close professional and personal relationshipswith Carnival. Our collaboration in the development of a successful jointventure will position us as the preeminent Spanish cruise operator."
Under the proposed transaction, the Iberojet cruise business beingcontributed to the joint venture company will be valued at euro 320 million,with euro 180 million in debt, representing a net capital value of euro 140million. Carnival will own 75 percent of the joint venture with Iberojetowning 25 percent.
Iberojet Cruceros would utilize the current Iberojet cruise managementteam with its president Alfredo Serrano reporting to the joint venture's boardof directors. It is expected that Pier Luigi Foschi, chairman and CEO ofCarnival's Costa Cruises unit, will serve as chairman of the board of thejoint venture. Costa already has a strong presence in the Spanish sector.
"With the combined strengths of the Costa and Iberojet organizations, thenew joint venture should generate even greater brand recognition in ourefforts to grow the interest in cruising in a market that we believe is primedand ready for expansion," Foschi said.
Carnival expects the transaction to be neutral to earnings on anannualized basis for the 12-month period following the transaction closing.The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2007, pendingapproval of both companies' boards of directors, all necessary regulatoryapprovals, customary due diligence and execution of definitive agreements.
About Carnival Corporation & plc
Carnival Corporation & plc is the largest cruise vacation group in theworld, with a portfolio of cruise brands in North America, Europe andAustralia, comprised of Carnival Cruise Lines, Holland America Line, PrincessCruises, Seabourn Cruise Line, Windstar Cruises, AIDA Cruises, Costa Cruises,Cunard Line, Ocean Village, P&O Cruises, Swan Hellenic, and P&O CruisesAustralia.
Together, these brands operate 81 ships totaling 144,000 lower berths with20 new ships scheduled to enter service between March 2007 and spring 2011.Carnival Corporation & plc also operates Holland America Tours and PrincessTours, the leading tour companies in Alaska and the Canadian Yukon. Traded onboth the New York and London Stock Exchanges, Carnival Corporation & plc isthe only group in the world to be included in both the S&P 500 and the FTSE100 indices.
About Iberojet
Headquartered in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, Iberojet is a division ofOrizonia Corporacion, the country's largest and oldest travel company, tracingits origins back to 1930. Orizonia was acquired by The Carlyle Group and VistaCapital in July 2006 from Iberostar Group.
In addition to the two cruise ships, Orizonia owns Spain's leading touroperators, including Solplan Viva Tours, Turavia Iberski, Viamed, IberojetInternational, and Condor Vacaciones, which market leisure travel packagesthroughout Europe, North and South America, the Caribbean, Africa and Asia.Viajes Iberia also has divisions specializing in business travel, meetings andconventions.
D-Viagen is the trade name operating in Portugal with 11 officesdistributed between Lisbon and Oporto. Viajar.com is a specialized Internetsupplier dedicated exclusively to online travel sales.
Orizonia also operates 700 retail travel agencies marketed under theViajes Iberia brand name, as well as Iberworld, a charter airline with 11medium- and long-haul aircraft providing round-trip service between Madrid andEurope, South America, the Caribbean, Africa and Asia.
SOURCE Carnival Corporation & plc
CONTACT: Media, Tim Gallagher, +1-305-599-2600, ext. 16000, for Carnival
Corporation & plc (US); Sophie Brand or Richard Jacques for Brunswick Group
(UK), +44-0-20-7404-5959; Fabrizia Greppi for Costa Cruises,
+39-010-5483-903 or +39-010-5483-523; Ricardo Fernandez for Iberojet,
+34-971-78-82-20; or Beth Roberts, Investor Relations for Carnival Corporation
& plc, +1-305-406-4832
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