Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (RCCL), the world’s second largest cruise shipping group, has reported almost doubling of net profit in the final quarter of 2015 from the same period a year earlier, but the full year figure fell short of 2014 due to an impairment charge booked earlier this year.
Fourth quarter net profit amounted to $206.8 million compared to $109.8 million in the same period last year as total revenues rose to $1.90 billion from $ 1.81 billion.
However, the full year 2015 net profit of $665.7 million was well below the $764.1 million reached last year as an impairment charge of $411 million that was booked earlier this year against the assets of Pullmantur, the group’s Spanish subsidiary, depressed the bottom line. Revenues, however, rose to $8.30 billion from $8.07 billion.
“During 2015, the US Dollar strengthened while the price of fuel in world markets declined. While the impact of currency is immediate, there is a lag before a change in the price of fuel flows through to business. There continues to be an inverse relationship between the foreign exchange impact on our currency exposures and fuel prices, but the offsets are not exact, especially in the short term. For 2015, the net impact of currency and fuel was a negative $0.25 per share relative to our January guidance,” RCCL said in a statement.
