Royal Caribbean Reports $392,800,000 Loss for Last Quarter
The Associated Press reports that cruise giant Royal Caribbean lost $392.8 million in the fourth quarter because of losses associated with its Spanish cruise line, Pullmantur.
The AP states that Royal Caribbean wrote down $413,900,000 due to a substantial drop in bookings and prices in Spain following the Spanish government’s austerity measures. Royal Caribbean also blamed its losses on the Costa Concordia disaster a year ago.
Royal Caribbean had a profit of $36.6 million during the same quarter a year ago.
In December we reported that Royal Caribbean's top executive Richard Fain bailed on out on a large block of cruise line stock.
In December 2012, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Richard Fain sold 143,140 shares of RCL stock for $4,964,095.
Fain followed up by exercising options and selling 188,443 shares for $6,535,203, for a total of around $11,500,000.
$11,500,000 in cash in your pocket and 6 weeks later your cruise line posts a loss of over $392,000,000. Goes to show you that cruise line executives have fun making millions hand over fist regardless of how the company performs.
Video below is of CEO Fain on one of the Royal Caribbean FlowRiders (via RCCL YouTube).
Jim Walker is a maritime lawyer who has attended seven Congressional hearing on issues of cruise ship crime, passenger disappearances,
