LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Carnival posted a significantly narrower first quarter loss but continued to incur in heavy losses because most of its operations remained suspended.
As of 31 May, only five of its ships were sailing, although eight of its nine brands had already either resumed guest operations or were expected to do so by 30 November.

For the six months ending on 31 May, the cruise line operator posted a 93% drop in revenues to reach $50m.

Passenger ticket sales were weakest, crumbling by nearly 96% to hit $20m.

That resulted in an operating loss of $1.62bn, which was down from the $4.18bn of red ink incurred in the same period one year ago.

Nevertheless, in the year earlier period the company incurred in goodwill impairments of £1.36bn.

Losses before tax meanwhile came in at £2.06bn, against £4.39bn one year before, with the company racking up a diluted loss per share of almost $1.83, versus the year earlier loss of $6.07bn.

Significantly, the company said its $9.3bn of cash and short-term investments as at 31 May meant it had sufficient liquidity to satisfy its obligations for "at least" the next 12 months.

However, management conceded that its projected liquidity needs had been estimated on the basis of a host of assumptions which could change as the firm had never previously experienced a complete cessation of its guest cruise operations.

At the end of the second half of its financial year, the cruise line operator had $278m of cash on hand, down from $294m one year before.

As of 1616 BST, shares of Carnival were trading down by 1.65% to $1,649.8.

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