Norwegian Cruise Line’s share for the fourth financial quarter of 2022 fell short by more than 10% despite a global rise in travel demand, CNBC reported.
“As Norwegian tries to climb back to profitability, it didn’t offer much confidence for the first half of 2023,” a recent CNBC report stated. “CEO Frank Del Rio said the company’s first 2023 quarter ‘will be the highest cost quarter,’ but added that the second half will be better. Norwegian is projecting losses of 45 cents per share in the first quarter, 10 cents higher than Wall Street had anticipated.”
According to Norwegian’s fourth quarter report, quarters losses summed up to be $1.04 per share, surpassing analyst’s projections of 85 cents.
“Norwegian said its costs continue to rise, exacerbated by inflation, even as it returns more ships to service,” the report explains. “Del Rio did not rule out an equity raise to manage debt, but he said it wouldn’t be prudent to issue more equity to de-lever the company,” even though “there’s a lot of work to do.”
As the cruise line continues battling to reduce costs and its $13 million debt resulting from inflation, it has reduced its estimates to a full-year earnings per share of 70 cents for this year.
“We’ve seen very, very strong record – near record booking levels dating back to November,” Del Rio said. “So we simply don’t see a weakening consumer.”
Norwegian joins its peers as the industry as a whole faces higher fuel prices and interest rates. Royal Caribbean’s stock spiked after the company projected “narrower than expected” losses during the fourth quarter.