Carnival Corp has announced a further round of fundraising with plans to issue $1bn in fresh shares.
The US cruise giant will issue 45.4m new stock priced at $25.10 per share, the company said in a filing after the market close on Monday. The offering is expected to close on 24 February, subject to customary closing conditions.
The shipowner said the proceeds from the offering would be used for general corporate purposes.
Goldman Sachs is acting as sole bookrunner and underwriter for the proposed public offering, Carnival said.
The US-listed company has mainly looked to debt offerings to sustain it through the pandemic, most recently issuing $3.5bn in new debt earlier this month.
Carnival has taken advantage of wide-open credit markets to borrow its way through the pandemic, which has put the entire cruise industry on hold for almost a year.
Extended cancellations
In January, Carnival extended its cancellation of sailings from the US until the end of April, while also cancelling sailings from Australia and Europe.
However, shares in Carnival have jumped 50% in the past three months as investors look to an eventual recovery in the sector.
Last month Carnival posted $10.2bn in losses for 2020, in a year chief executive Arnold Donald described as a “true testament to the resilience of our company".
Carnival chief financial officer David Bernstein said the company ended the year with $9.5bn in cash and had the “liquidity in place to sustain ourselves throughout 2021, even in a zero-revenue environment".
The company said it was unable to predict when the entire fleet will return to normal operations, and as a result, was unable to provide an earnings forecast.
On Monday, cruise rival Royal Caribbean said bookings continue to improve with reservations running 30% higher than in November and December.
The company said the vaccination of millions of Americans against coronavirus has been a significant help, along with the accompanying decline in Covid-19 cases across the country.
The Bloomberg Vaccine Tracker shows that 13.1% of Americans have received at least one dose.
However, on Tuesday the country reported that coronavirus-related deaths had passed the 500,000 people milestone.
