News

FYI--

Oceania, Regent gain several brand-dedicated team members

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Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises now have additional brand-dedicated executives, in the areas of revenue management, guest relations and public relations.

These changes follow the recent return of Bob Binder to lead Oceania as president and ceo, while Jason Montague newly focuses on Regent as president and ceo.

Stacey Stone is now dedicated to the Oceania brand as svp revenue management, while Wes D’Silva was promoted to vp revenue management for Regent.

Gair O’Neill was named senior director of guest relations for Oceania, while guest relations at Regent will now report up to Pat Scheer, vp passenger services.

Tim Rubacky became senior director of public relations for Oceania, after most recently serving as director of international marketing for Oceania and Regent. (A successor in that job is to be named.) And Jason Lasecki is now focused on Regent as senior director of public relations.

Oceania and Regent have always had dedicated marketing, sales and hotel operations teams. The realignments in revenue management, guest relations and PR are intended to provide additional support for each brand, a spokesman told Seatrade Cruise News.

Thank you for the information, captainjohn

For those of us that are not tuned in to the latest managerial & marketing speak, is anyone able to define each of these roles in more detail

i.e. what do the senior vice presidents and vice presidents of revenue management, guest relations and public relations actually do day-to-day?

How will they enhance the cruise experience for guests and/or improve returns for NCLH investors?...............or is this just a case of 're-arranging the deck chairs'?

Long discussion about management re-orgs in NCLH over on the NCL board.

http://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2404082

We could not be more pleased with all of the significant promotions that have happened at corporate. Having a designated Revenue Management person for Regent alone is a big plus. Also, IMO, promoting Jason Montague is well deserved. He has been great in his role as President of Regent and will no doubt be at least as successful as President and CEO.

Frank Del Rio said at a Press Conference yesterday -- I quote a pertinent section:

"NCLH includes Norwegian Cruise Line, Regent Seven Seas Cruises and Oceania Cruises.

".....we do it every day and that is why each of our brands is the highest yielding in their respective categories. Even though we are the smallest of the three public cruise companies our brands generate more EBITDA per bed than the other two companies," said del Rio.

Sounds like NCHL is doing just fine!

P.S. Source: Cruise Industry News!

Frank Del Rio said at a Press Conference yesterday -- I quote a pertinent section:

 

"NCLH includes Norwegian Cruise Line, Regent Seven Seas Cruises and Oceania Cruises.

 

".....we do it every day and that is why each of our brands is the highest yielding in their respective categories. Even though we are the smallest of the three public cruise companies our brands generate more EBITDA per bed than the other two companies," said del Rio.

 

Sounds like NCHL is doing just fine!

 

P.S. Source: Cruise Industry News!

Unfortunately NCLH's stock performance over the past year does not support FDR's optimistic comparison with the other two cruise corporations - see attached

Cruiseline Stock.pdf

Unfortunately NCLH's stock performance over the past year does not support FDR's optimistic comparison with the other two cruise corporations - see attached

Mr. Del Rio was discussing "EBITDA per bed" rather than stock performance.

I must admit that I had never heard of EBITDA before and had to look up its meaning

My understanding is that EBITDA is an indicator of a company's operating performance; I would therefore expect this to be reflected in the company's stock performance

However, during my research I found the following interesting warning regarding this performance indicator: ".....EBITDA is often used as an accounting gimmick to dress up a company's earnings. When using this metric, it is key that investors also focus on other performance measures to make sure the company is not trying to hide something....."

EBITDA is a very useful performance metric for many industries. It strips out some things that can be misleading or manipulated on a profit and loss statement but in itself it is not an indicator of the true financial performance of a company. By itself, it is just about as indicative as revenue per bed which would also be useful. But at the end of the day they say very little, in isolation, about how the company is doing or will do. Ships cost large sums of money so it is important to consider the cost of, and return, on this investment - but depreciation and amortization - the "DA" being excluded in EBTDA are non- cash charges and often do not reflect the true value of an asset at any point in time nor the replacement cost of that asset. Much of the cash to pay for expensive assets is usually borrowed and this does come with very real costs - the "I" being excluded in EBITA - so at some point this must be considered - but it is useful to see the capacity to pay these interest costs. And theoretically, these borrowings get paid off at some point so it can be useful to see some indication of earning potential at that time and EBITDA might be a useful indicator of that. Taxes are also excluded, and taxes usually have to be paid at some point - but the taxes that are actually paid, and when, are usually very different than the taxes reflected on a large companies P&L so excluding the P&L taxes from EBITDA can make sense depending on what you want to look at.

So, Mr. Del RIo was pointing out a very positive factoid about the capability to generate the highest EBITA (per bed). This is a good thing. But it is only one chapter in a very big book and should not be confused with their overall financial performance and especially not with their stock performance.

Excellent summary John. In my previous life I followed the cruise industry and your points are well taken. Mr. Del Rio also has a good point in that substantial cash flow is needed to pay for new builds. As the industry started to truly ramp up during the first decade of the 21st century Carnival, as an example, was able to pay for new ships in 3+ years. Probably not true now, although I suspect, don't know, higher price point lines still generate superior cash characteristics.

As I am sure you are aware most ships are registered in tax friendly environments which makes that part of EBITDA less important. The non-cash charges to earnings of course are the key to paying for ongoing building programs. Knowing that Crystal is an Asian based co. it certainly helps to explain their expansion program.

I've followed FDR and his involvement in cruising for some time. When running Oceania he intervened on CC if he thought the line was at fault or being blamed unfairly. Brilliant customer relations.

He is of Cuban ancestry and my wife and I will be in the next cabin to him when the first of his vessels visits that island (though that presumption may have become complicated since he moved upward and US access increased).

We've spent a lot of money with him. And I'd put money on him performing.