Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, Ltd, the world’s third largest cruise shipping group, forecasts its full year 2016 adjusted earnings per share (EPS) to reach $3.65 to $3.85 compared to $2.88 in 2015, which was close to the ceiling of its $2.90 ceiling.
Net yields should rise 3.35% as reported and $4.0% in constant currency terms this year, while net cruise costs are expected to increase by 2.25% as reported and by 2.50% on constant currency basis.
“As a result of its post-acquisition strategies to drive demand, the Company entered the year in a solid booked position with more than 50% of overall 2016 inventory sold which is significantly ahead of the same time last year. The Company is seeing this trend continue into next year where the current booked position for the first half of 2017 is approximately 30% higher compared to this time last year on a capacity increase of approximately 5%,” Norwegian said in a statement.
"Our strong booked position coming into the year provides us more pricing leverage during Wave season and beyond for remaining inventory than in years past," said Frank Del Rio, President and CEO.
"Our core itineraries in the Caribbean, Alaska and Bermuda are performing strongly and more than make up for softness in the Mediterranean region caused by geopolitical events and incidents in recent months which, when combined with the strengthening of the U.S. dollar, reduced anticipated earnings for the year by approximately $0.10 per share. The strength in our North American destinations, as well as encouraging booking volumes for early 2017 give us further confidence in our targets of reaching double-digit return on invested capital in 2016, growing to 14% by 2018, and exceeding $5.00 Adjusted EPS in 2017," continued Del Rio.
