Viking closed the second quarter with $4 billion in cash and cash equivalents, and has laid out the criteria any acquisition would have to clear before the company would spend it.
Asked on the company’s second quarter 2026 earnings call how it was weighing acquisitions against capital returns, President and CEO Leah Talactac said the orderbook comes first.
“We do have a healthy cash balance of $4 billion. Our priority, as you can see from our orderbook, is really to reinvest the cash in the business to generate strong returns,” Talactac said.
She then set out a four-part screen that any target would have to meet.
“We do have a framework in which we look at all acquisitions. First, it has to be scalable. It has to be able to move. When we think about acquisitions, it is like you have to compare it to our organic growth. It has to be able to generate the same, if not more returns than our ships,” Talactac said.
“It has to be scalable, it has to be margin accretive, and then of course, complementary to the brand and fits within the brand ethos,” she said.
The comments came in response to a question from Lizzie Dove of Goldman Sachs, who asked whether Viking’s expanding portfolio of land extensions and shore excursions might be built through acquisition rather than organically.
Chief Financial Officer Linh Banh said Viking also had an undrawn $1 billion revolving credit facility as of June 30. Net debt stood at $2.4 billion and net leverage at 1.2 times. Deferred revenue was $5 billion.
Viking took delivery of four river vessels and one ocean ship since its last earnings call and expects 12 deliveries in total during 2026, 10 for river and two for ocean. The company also exercised options for two additional ocean ships scheduled for delivery in 2032.
Executive Chairman Tor Hagen closed the call by arguing that the orderbook itself is the balance sheet story, particularly against the backdrop of the historically low water levels disrupting European river itineraries this season.
“If you look at our presentation, we see the phenomenal orderbook we have on slide 14,” Hagen said. “I think when we talk about water levels and all that, it’s sometimes counterintuitive to talk about the value of having such an orderbook. I’m so sure that this orderbook will be very good for us.
“As long as we make sure we spend enough on marketing, treat our guests well, and we have very good contract prices with the yards, then I think this will be one of the main assets of Viking, if I may say so,” he said.
Earlier on the call, Hagen suggested the current disruption on Europe’s rivers could open doors for a company sitting on Viking’s cash position.
“If one is a little bit contrarian, maybe such a situation as now can create some opportunity to do things that otherwise would have been difficult, because we are in a very strong financial position, so we might be able to be contrarians too,” Hagen said, adding: “that may be wishful thinking.”
