Carnival Corporation & plc

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Carnival Corporation & plc
Type	Public (NYSE: CCL, LSE: CCL, NYSE: CUK)
Founded	1972
Headquarters	Carnival Corp.: Incorporated in Panama, with headquarters in Miami, Florida, USA London, England
Key people	Micky Arison, Chairman & CEO Howard S. Frank, Vice-Chairman & COO
Industry	Entertainment
Revenue	$11,839 million (2006)
Operating income	$2,613 million (2006)
Net income	$2,279 million (2006)
Website	www.carnivalcorp.com

The British-American corporation, Carnival Corporation & PLC is the world's largest cruise operator, comprising 12 cruise brands, including Carnival Cruise Lines, Princess Cruises, Holland America Line, Windstar Cruises and Seabourn Cruise Line in North America; P&O Cruises, Cunard Line, Ocean Village Holidays and Swan Hellenic in the United Kingdom; AIDA in Germany; Costa Cruises in Southern Europe and P&O Cruises Australia in Australia. It operates 81 ships, totalling more than 144,000 berths with a further 15 ships to be delivered between March 2007 and Spring 2010.

Carnival Corporation & plc is a dual listed company (see that article for an explanation of this fairly unusual corporate structure), with headquarters in Miami, Florida, USA and London, UK. Carnival Corporation and Carnival plc are separate listed companies and have different shareholder bodies, but they jointly own all the operating companies in the group. Carnival Corporation owns the majority stake. In the year ending 30 November 2006 Carnival had revenue of $11.839 billion and net income of $2.279 billion.

Contents 1 Carnival Corporation 2 Carnival plc 3 Controversy 4 Notable cruise liners of Carnival Corporation & plc 5 See also 6 External links

[edit] Carnival Corporation

Carnival Corporation was initially formed in 1972 under the name Carnival Cruise Lines by the late cruise industry pioneer Ted Arison. After achieving its position as one of the world's most popular cruise lines, it made an initial public offering of 20% of its common stock in 1987. This provided an influx of capital that allowed the company to begin its expansion through acquisition. In 1989 its first acquisition was made with the premium operator Holland America Line (this included Windstar Cruises and Holland America Tours) and its second in 1992, of the operator Seabourn Cruise Line. Following this acquisition in 1993, the company changed its name to Carnival Corporation and continued its expansion further into virtually every market segment of the cruise industry with the acquisitions of Costa Cruises in 1997 and Cunard Line in 1998.

Carnival Corporation is the larger of the two holding companies and is incorporated in Panama with its primary listings on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: CCL). Prior to 17 April 2003 it was a separate company and the market leader in the United States cruise market. CEO Micky Arison, son of the company's founder and his family own 47% of Carnival Corporation.

In 1988, Carnival Cruise Lines expanded into the world of charter airlines, with the purchase of Pacific Interstate Airlines, which was subsequently renamed Carnival Air Lines in 1989. The company flew Airbus A300's, Boeing 727's and Boeing 737's on routes between San Juan, Orlando, Miami International Airport and Islip, along with other charter services. In September 1997 the company was purchased by the Pan Am Corporation, however its rapid expansion and economic troubles led to both Pan Am and Carnival Airlines filing for bankruptcy and ceased scheduled flights in February 1998.

[edit] Carnival plc

Carnival plc was formed in October 2000 under the name P&O Princess Ltd by the demerger of the Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company's cruise business. P&O Princess' cruise business has had over 150 years of maritime history beginning in the United Kingdom in the 1840s. From established positions in the United Kingdom and Australia it improved its position in North America with the acquisitions of Princess Cruises and Sitmar Cruises in the 1970s and 1980s.

In 1999 P&O Princess entered the German market with the acquisition of a majority stake in AIDA Cruises and bought it out-right in 2000 by acquiring the remaining minority stakes. In 2002, the company announced the introduction of a new cruise brand in the United Kingdom with Ocean Village which commenced operations in May 2003. This was after the merger of Carnival Corporation and P&O Princess Cruises plc on 17 April 2003 that created one of the world's largest leisure travel companies. At the same time, P&O Princess ceased to exist, favouring the name Carnival plc. Its stock is currently traded on the London Stock Exchange (LSE: CCL) and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: CUK) as the second holding of the dual listed company.

[edit] Controversy

Allegations have recently been made against several members of crew onboard ships of the P&O Australia brand. These allegations include accessory to rape, drug use and assault. According the allegations, cruises are being promoted to persons engaging in illegal activity.[1][2]

A significant amount of negative publicity for P&O Cruises was generated in the aftermath of the death of Dianne Brimble on a cruise on the P&O Pacific Sky from Australia.

[edit] Notable cruise liners of Carnival Corporation & plc

• RMS Queen Mary 2 (transatlantic ocean liner) (Cunard)
• RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 -- 1969 (transatlantic, ocean liner now used as a cruise liner) (Cunard)
• Carnival Destiny (cruise liner) (Carnival Cruise Line)
• Star Princess (large fire ripped through berths in March 2006) (Princess Cruises)

[edit] See also

• Cunard Line
• Princess Cruises
• Carnival Cruise Lines
• Holland America Line
• Windstar Cruises
• Seabourn Cruise Line
• Swan Hellenic
• AIDA (German Wikipedia Article)
• Costa Cruises
• Carnival Air Lines

[edit] External links

• Carnival Corporation website
• CruiseJournals.com - Cruise Community Pages
• Yahoo! Carnival Corporation company profile
• A travel journalist's account of a P&O Cruise holiday
• The Crow's Nest. An independent web forum dedicated to all things cruise related