Royal Caribbean Cruises announced it had made changes to the export-credit backed loan facility incurred to finance Quantum of the Seas in order to incorporate the benefits of a 12-month debt holiday initiative being offered by Euler Hermes Aktiengesellschaft, the official export credit agency of Germany.

“As we have previously disclosed, the intention of this initiative is to provide interim debt service and financial covenant relief during the current global health crisis to cruise-line borrowers with respect to their Hermes-guaranteed financings,” Royal Caribbean said, in a regulatory filing. 

Under the terms of the amendment, the lenders have made available to us a new tranche of the loan, the proceeds of which will be used to repay any principal amortization payments due on the facility between April 1, 2020 and March 31, 2021.  

The lenders have also agreed that, during the Deferral Period, a breach of the financial covenants will not trigger a mandatory prepayment under the facility.

In addition, the company announced it had amended the export-credit backed loan facilities incurred to finance the Celebrity Eclipse, Celebrity Equinox, Celebrity Solstice and Celebrity Silhouette in order to incorporate the benefits of the Debt Holiday.

“Across the Quantum facility described above and these four facilities, the Debt Holiday amendments will generate approximately $250 million of incremental liquidity through April 2021. This is in addition to the $200 million of incremental liquidity previously disclosed realized in connection with the implementation of the Debt Holiday across certain other Hermes-backed facilities,” the company said.