RCCL-Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd and Manfredi Lefebvre D’Ovidio announced an agreement for RCL to buy a stake in the privately-owned cruise company Silversea.
Under the new agreement, Royal Caribbean Cruises will acquire 66.7% equity stake in Silversea based on an enterprise value of approx US$2 billion. The purchase price of the equity acquired is approx US$1 billion. RCL intends to finance the purchase via debt.
In addition, Lefebvre will qualify for estimated contingent consideration of approx 472,000 RCL shares, that are payable upon achievement of certain performance metrics in 2019-2020.
The strategic partnership features:
- Driving long-term capacity growth in burgeoning expedition and luxury markets at a larger scale than what Silversea Cruises would independently achieve;
- Diversifying the portfolio of Royal Caribbean and increasing its expedition offerings via adding a premiere ultra-luxury brand;
- Leveraging the global footprint of combined companies in order to generate demand and increase destination and vacation options for the passengers of both companies;
- Realizing significant synergies that are related to global market access, purchasing power, supply chain and other economies of scale.
Silversea’s CEO Roberto Martinoli continues in his role, working with the existing management team of Silversea Cruises.