Carnival Corporation & plc has announced that on Feb. 1, 2010 awards were made to certain executive directors pursuant to the Carnival Corporation 2002 Stock Plan and Carnival plc 2005 Employee Share Plan.

Awards of Carnival Corporation restricted common stock were made to Micky Arison, chairman and chief executive officer of Carnival Corporation & plc and Howard S. Frank, vice chairman and chief operating officer. Arison was granted 102,551 restricted shares, and Frank, 85,459 restricted shares. Frank’s award was reduced by 31,150 restricted shares withheld by the company to satisfy the U.S. withholding tax obligation on this award, as permitted by the 2002 Plan, according to a statement from Carnival, which also said that the U.S. tax withholding obligation did not apply to Arison.

Awards of Carnival plc restricted share units were made to Pier Luigi Foschi, chairman and chief executive officer of Costa Crociere and David Dingle, chief executive officer of Carnival UK.  Foschi was granted 32,290 restricted share units, and Dingle, 17,534.

The restricted shares and restricted share units will be released from restriction on Feb.1, 2013.
Also on Feb. 1, 2010, Peter Ratcliffe, a member of Carnival Corporation & plc’s boards of directors, sold 11,465 shares of Carnival Corporation common stock at an average price of US$33.9174 per share.

Following the awards and transactions, Arison’s and Frank’s total direct and indirect beneficial ownership of Carnival Corporation common stock are 180,702,467 and 400,728, respectively. Foschi’s and Dingle’s total holdings are 122,170 and 49,643, respectively. Ratcliffe holds directly and indirectly no shares and 47,147 restricted stock units.