Could Carnival streamline and realign more brands in its portfolio?

How are Costa, Princess and Holland America Line performing? And why not get into river cruising, perhaps via Seabourn?

All were questions analysts posed to management during Tuesday's earnings call.

P&O Australia situation unique

CEO Josh Weinstein said the decision to sunset P&O Australia was unique because its ability to grow as a single source market brand of that size was limited. By folding it into Carnival Cruise Line, the company will still carry more than 60% of all Aussie cruisers.

And Carnival Corp. will optimize its presence in the market by gaining operational, administrative and back-office scale, plus greater deployment flexibility while further boosting capacity for its highest returning brand.

The company has been looking at its portfolio management over the past couple years since Weinstein took over as CEO and moved some Costa ships to the Carnival brand.

It will continue to assess though 'Nothing is on the horizon,' according to Weinstein.

Costa, Princess, HAL show progress

An analyst asked how Costa, Princess and Holland America Line measure up against Carnival's benchmarks and if any one is outperforming?

Weinstein cited 'progress across the board,' with all three showing 'significant improvement' year over year in return on invested capital.

Each is measured from a different pre-pandemic starting point. One is above where it was, one is at where it was and one is below. Weinstein expects the brand that's above to perform higher since it didn't have such a strong 2019.

None is at the 12% ROIC that is one of the company's 2026 SEA Change goals.

'All of them have the potential to [reach] that and we've got plans in place for them to do that over time,' Weinstein said.

Seabourn River Cruises?

Pointing to Viking's success and 30% ROIC, an analyst asked about the river cruise business, suggesting Seabourn River Cruises could be 'quite popular and a good crossover for your existing customers.'

Weinstein said Carnival's looked at river cruising but it's a 'rather small' niche and for something to move the needle, it'd have to be 'pretty grand.

'I think if we focus on our brands, and we focus on doing all the things that we do in the normal course right, we will make much more of an impact on this business,' he said.

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