Carnival Corp may sell its luxury brand Seabourn to the Saudi Arabian state, according to media reports.
The kingdom’s Public Investment Fund is in talks with the world’s largest cruise ship owner to sell the six-vessel fleet, CNBC and other outlets have said.
New York-listed Carnival, which has eight other brands, would neither confirm nor deny the reports.
“As a general policy, we do not comment on rumours or speculation,” spokesman Roger Frizzell told TradeWinds.
The Saudi fund did not immediately return calls from TradeWinds.
This would not be the first time the sovereign wealth fund has invested in the Miami-based owner of 91 ships, if reports are true.
At the height of the pandemic in early April 2020, it bought 43.5m shares equal to 8.2% of the ailing company, worth around $420m at the time.
As of 30 March 2022, Carnival’s largest shareholder was Vanguard Group with a 9.1% stake backed by 90.1m shares.
The Public Investment Fund is second with a current holding of 5.1% consisting of 50.8m shares.
BlackRock ranks third, having disclosed a 5.1% stake in mid-March that is backed by 50.7m shares.
The Public Investment Fund is Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s vehicle to boost Saudi investments at home and abroad, as he seeks to diversify the oil-heavy national economy.
The fund has $600bn in assets across 13 sectors that include real estate, technology and infrastructure in the Americas, Middle East, Europe and Asia, according to its website.
The reported discussions between Saudi Arabia and the cruise behemoth come a week after Carnival raised $1bn in the debt market at a yield of 10.5%. The unsecured notes will mature in June 2030.
Selling Seabourn, which entered the market in 1988, would be the latest move by Carnival to turn assets into cash as it faces billions of dollars in debt as a result of the pandemic.
Arnold Donald, Carnival’s chief executive since 2013, sold or scrapped 18 ships during an industry-wide suspension of cruising, to raise money and reduce operating costs.
Donald, 67, will hand the reins over to chief operating officer Josh Weinstein, 48, in August yet stay involved with Carnival as vice chairman of its board.
