Carnival Corporation & and Orizonia Corporacion announced that they have finalized the agreements for a previously announced
multi-ship cruise brand serving the Spanish market.
The transaction is expected to close on September 14, 2007, with
Carnival owning 75 percent of the joint venture and Orizonia owning 25
percent. The new joint venture company will be consolidated into Carnival
Corporation & plc's financial results starting in the fourth quarter 2007
and is expected to be accretive to results in 2008.
To be called Iberocruceros, the new joint venture combines the two
vessels of Orizonia's existing cruise operations with a ship from the
Carnival group.
In addition to Orizonia's 1,244-passenger Grand Mistral and
834-passenger Grand Voyager, the 1,486-passenger Celebration from Carnival
Cruise Lines' fleet, will be transferred to the new Iberocruceros company.
After an extensive renovation, the Celebration is scheduled to enter
service in late spring 2008.
Alfredo Serrano, currently general manager of the Iberojet fleet, has
been appointed general manager of Iberocruceros, which will be
headquartered in Madrid. Serrano will report to the newly formed
Iberocruceros board whose chairman will be Pier Luigi Foschi, chairman and
CEO of Carnival Corporation & plc's Costa Cruises unit. The board will also
include Orizonia CEO Gabriel Subias.
The three Iberocruceros ships will fly the Italian flag. Itineraries
for these vessels will be announced shortly.