Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. To End SkySea Joint Venture

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (RCL) and Ctrip will end their SkySea Cruise Line joint venture. TUI AG's Marella Cruises has agreed to purchase Golden Era, with delivery expected in December, 2018. After the sale is completed, SkySea will wind down its business operations before the end of 2018.

TUI Cruises will retain Mein Schiff 2 in its fleet, rather than selling it to Marella Cruises, giving TUI Cruises increased capacity in the strong German market.

Favorable business conditions will allow RCL and Ctrip to absorb most of SkySea’s employees.

RCL will continue to serve the Chinese market through its Royal Caribbean International brand. It has the largest fleet deployment in the region.

The impact of the transactions is expected to fall in a range of $0.12 to $0.15 per share in FY2018. The loss will be excluded from 2018 Adjusted Net Income.

RCL is a 50 percent joint venture owner of the German brand TUI Cruises, a 49 per-cent shareholder in the Spanish brand Pullmantur and a 36 percent shareholder in the Chinese brand SkySea Cruises. The brands together operate 49 ships with an additional thirteen on order as of December 31, 2017. They call on approximately 540 destinations on all seven continents.