PHOTO: Is Norwegian Cruise Line, which operates contemporary ships such as the Norwegian Breakaway pictured above, negotiating to buy Prestige Cruise Holdings? (Courtesy of Norwegian Cruise Line)

Is Norwegian Cruise Line’s parent company about to buy Prestige Cruises International, which operates Regent Seven Seas Cruises and Oceania Cruises, in a blockbuster $3 billion deal?

The international news service Reuters reports that negotiations are underway, citing unnamed sources familiar with the deal. Representatives for both companies did not immediately respond to a request for comment from TravelPulse over the long Labor Day weekend.

“An agreement may be announced as early as this week, the sources said on Sunday, cautioning that the talks could still fall apart,” Reuters reported.

If such an acquisition did take place, it would give Norwegian, a contemporary cruise line, a foothold in the luxury and upper-premium segments. Norwegian’s rivals, Carnival Corp. and Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., both operate upscale brands.

Prestige is primarily owned by Apollo Management, which also owns about 23 percent of Norwegian, which went public in January 2013. Prestige filed papers on Jan. 22, 2014, with the Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering of about $250 million, but has yet to proceed.

Prestige was formed in 2007 to manage select assets in Apollo Management’s cruise investment portfolio, according to the company website. It is led by Chairman and CEO Frank J. Del Rio and President and COO Kunal S. Kamlani.

In a recent interview for a Regent company profile in the September issue of Vacation Agent magazine, a sister publication to TravelPulse, Kamlani was asked about the IPO. He declined to discuss the situation other than to say that “a number of factors go into deciding when the time is right. We’ll make that decision when those factors all become aligned.”

Oceania owns and operates five ships in the upper-premium segment — the three 684-passenger R-Class ships Regatta, Insignia and Nautica, and the newer 1,250-guest Marina and Riviera, which joined the fleet in 2011 and 2012, respectively. In an SEC filing, the line positioned itself as the “affordable cruising alternative between the luxury ($500-plus per person, per diems) and premium ($150 to $250 per person per diems).

Regent, an all-inclusive luxury line, operates three all-suite ships — Seven Seas Navigator, Seven Seas Mariner and Seven Seas Voyager — totaling 1,890 berths. In July the company began building the 54,000-ton, 750-passenger Seven Seas Explorer, which will increase the line’s capacity by 40 percent when it is delivered in June 2016.

Norwegian operates 13 cruise ships and has four more on order for delivery in fall 2015, spring 2017, spring 2018 and fall 2019.