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Carnival facility repricing 'largest ever achieved in Term Loan B market'

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'An affirmation from investors of our bright future and their confidence in our management team,' CFO David Bernstein said
Last month Carnival Corp. & plc repriced its $2.8bn first-priority senior secured term loan facility for annual future interest savings of more than $120m.

'It was an incredibly successful transaction,' CFO David Bernstein said. 'It was well oversubscribed, which is unusual in the Term Loan B market.

'This was the largest repricing change of a term loan ever achieved by any company in the Term Loan B market ... Clearly, this transaction is an affirmation from investors of our bright future and their confidence in our management team.'

As earlier reported, the US dollar portion of that $2.8bn facility now has an interest rate of LIBOR plus a 3% margin, 4.5% less than the LIBOR margin before repricing. The euro portion of the loan now has an interest rate of EURIBOR plus 3.75%, 3.75% less than the prior EURIBOR pricing.

Pursuing additional refinancing opportunities

With $9.3bn of cash and short-term investments on its balance sheet, Carnival believes it has enough liquidity to get back into full passenger operations by spring 2022.

So, Bernstein said, 'given how supportive the debt capital market investors and commercial banks have been, we will be pursuing additional refinancing opportunities to meaningfully reduce our interest expense and extend maturities.'

During Carnival Corp.'s Thursday earnings call, CEO Arnold Donald acknowledged Bernstein and the entire finance team for their 'very successful efforts in helping us to manage the balance sheet.'