There have been rumblings for some time that Norwegian Cruise Line was working on a deal to buy Prestige Cruises International, a privately held company which owns Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas, but there is always a lot of noise in the cruise industry and many things don’t ever see the light of the deal day. This deal is such a biggie and extremely impressive and the intent is to finalize the purchase in Q4 of this year.
Prestige Cruise Holdings’ Frank Del Rio and
Norwegian Cruise Line’s Kevin Sheehan
have agreed to work together through 2015.
photo credit: Norwegian Cruise Line
For a cruise line that has endured a somewhat checkered past in its nearly 50 year life and gone through its own share of ups and downs, while also being known as a constant innovator, Norwegian has been making very steady progress in recent years. Under the effective guidance of Kevin Sheehan, the company has returned to being a major and influential brand with enormous clout and this deal for approximately USD 3 billion is an incredibly positive sign of the times.
I am delighted that it has reached fruition and we should all be pleased it is occurring since it solidifies Norwegian’s place as the #3 cruise line. Not only that… they will have both a mainstream and an upscale brand as well as a luxury cruise line in their portfolio – each of which is highly regarded in their separate segments.
Chef Cat Cora christens the Oceania Riviera in May of 2012 at Barcelona. l-r Kunal Kamlani, President, Oceania Cruises;
Frank Del Rio, Chairman & CEO, Prestige Cruise Holdings; Riviera Captain Luca Manzi & Godmother Cat Cora.
This will be a diversified cruise operator with leading global cruise brands in 3 market segments and one that intends to retain each company’s culture and value propositions. Regent also has a new build coming in 2016 and of course Norwegian is on a major growth spurt, with 13 vessels now and 4 new builds on order – coming from 2015 to 2019. Together Regent and Oceania have 46% of the combined berth capacity in the upper/luxury end of the market. Norwegian can now access many more guests and also travel professionals across these 3 lines to offer a much broader appeal.
The new Norwegian ships, Breakaway and Getaway (both of which I very much like) were game-changers for a number of reasons especially in the outdoor gathering and dining spots. The Waterfront concept is spectacular and the expanded and fabulous ‘The Haven’ a true ship within a ship experience.
Norwegian, then known as NCL made a wonderful leap into a new era of cruising when they came up with “Freestyle Cruising” back in the early 2000’s. Casual cruising with a huge choice of dining opportunities was truly perfect for the times and has just been improved upon and enhanced ever since.
Regent Seven Seas Navigator
Oceania took the industry by storm when it launched just over 10 years ago and has found itself a remarkably profitable and comfortable place with its stellar marketing and absolutely stunning ships with a focus on culinary experiences. In particular on its last 2 new ships, the Marina and the Riviera. They are to be commended for finding a niche and in fact being a disruptive yet positive influence in the business when they arrived on the scene.
And as for Regent, it is a great brand which for most of its lifespan – 20 years in fact - was run by one of the cruise industries most savvy and experienced executives - Mark Conroy. He and his team grew RSSC into an extraordinarily powerful all-inclusive, top-of-their-game luxury brand starting with the Radisson Diamond back in 1992 and morphing into the cruise line it is today. As a side note here, it would be great to see Mark come back into the industry from his “gardening duties” to work with these 3 fantastic brands as he was in fact at NCL in the early days of his career…
All in all this is a very good news story and I will follow it with great interest in the coming months. New deals, new builds, new opportunities along with savvy cruise industry players, make this a valuable market segment that continues to be exciting, energizing, successful and profitable.
