Royal Caribbean Cruises has received nearly an additional half a billion dollars in cash thanks to a German debt holiday that has also benefited one of its rivals.
Euler Hermes Aktiengesellschaft, Germany's export credit rating agency, has suspended loan payments for 12 months to provide financial relief to borrowers during the pandemic.
The holiday has enabled the Richard Fain-led owner of 62 cruiseships to amend Hermes-backed loans that finance five ships so that Royal Caribbean will get another $250m in liquidity up until April 2021, according to a regulatory filing.
The five ships are Celebrity Cruises' 2,850-berth Celebrity Eclipse (built 2010), Celebrity Equinox (built 2009) and Celebrity Solstice (built 2008); and 2,886-berth Celebrity Silhouette (built 2011); and Royal Caribbean International's 4,180-berth Quantum of the Seas (built 2014).
Royal Caribbean has also received an additional $200m in liquidity related to other Hermes-backed facilities acquired in October 2017, the filing shows.
Frank Del Rio-led Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings on Monday said it had attained $386m in extra liquidity as a result of the same Hermes debt holiday.
Before the German relief, Royal Caribbean was said to have 10 months of financial runway from $2.7bn in revolving credit.
Norwegian's liquidity was estimated at eight months before the Hermes holiday on $1.55bn in credit.
Carnival Corp is said to have 15 months of runway on $9bn in financing. Calls to Carnival were not immediately returned.
The "Big Three" cruise majors are not earning any revenue while paying millions of dollars per month idling costs on suspended fleets.
They are also paying interest payments on pre-coronavirus debt while the US has excluded them from financial aid because they are incorporated overseas.
The companies were still having a good time on Wall Street on Tuesday morning despite their financial duress.
Carnival's shares were up 8% to $14.02, while Royal Caribbean's stock gained 9.1% to $6.61. Norwegian's shares rose 8.5% to $12.40
