The newly-formed regency Cruises Inc., headed by William Schanz, has successfully completed the public offer of its Common Stock, and will thus be the first cruise line to offer stock for public trading in the United States. It is anticipated that the Regency stock, under the symbol SHIPU, will be listed on the NASDAQ over-the-counter quotation system.
Regency has chartered the 768-passenger M. V. Regent Sea from its Liberian owner, Ridan Investment Trust, for five years, at the rate of $20,900 per operating day for the first two years of the charter, and with an increase of 5% each subsequent year. The company has committed to pay a total of approximately $38.8 million in charter fees over the five-year term.
The Regent Sea will operate seven-day winter and fall cruises in the Caribbean, with late spring and summer cruises in Alaska or the Mediterranean, beginning November 1985.
Regency estimates that total operating expenses for the first year of operation will be $23.5 million, and that such expenses will be satisfied if the Regent Sea operates at 73% of capacity at full tariff rates. The ship is currently undergoing a major overhaul and refitting in Piraeus, Greece, and is scheduled for delivery by mid-summer 1985.
NCL/RVL…
After NCL president Ron Zeller’s recent visit to San Francisco, unconfirmed reports indicate that Royal Viking Line and Norwegian Caribbean Lines may consolidate their operations and management under a new joint administration, with sales and marketing in Miami and San Francisco…
Discounts…
Cunard is offering free air to the Sagafjord’s South American cruises, and pre- and post-cruise land packages in Rio and Brazilia.
Carnival Cruise Lines has cancelled Holidays voyage to New York. The new ship now is scheduled to arrive from Denmark, July 2, in Miami, where she will sail a two-day cruise to nowhere for travel agents and the line’s air partners, and a two-day cruise to Nassau, July 11, for the National Fund for the Advancement of the Arts. She wi 11 sail her inaugural seven-day cruise, July 13.
