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.