Carnival counts the cost of cruise ship crash -UPDATE

published 16 January 2012

Carnival (CCL), the FTSE 100 company which owns the Costa Concordia, the cruise ship which grounded off the coast of Italy at the weekend, says the cost of not having the boat in service will be between $85m and $95m.

Carnival is the parent company of Costa Cruises, the operator of the Concordia.

The company also says it has insurance deductibles of around $40m.

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In a statement accompanying today's release Micky Arison, Carnival's Chief Executive, said:

"We are deeply saddened by this tragic event and our hearts go out to everyone affected by the grounding of the Costa Concordia and especially to the families and loved ones of those who lost their lives."

Carnival's shares have fallen by 28% in the last 12 months.

The death toll from the damaged ship rose to six on Monday morning, as bodies continue to be recovered from the luxury liner, which hit rocks off the island of Giglio in the Mediterranean on Friday evening.

Commenting on the news this morning, analysts at Credit Suisse are saying that, "CCL still positioned for the long-term: As the industry leader, with an investment grade balance sheet and leading share, CCL should ultimately be able to weather this storm. While we would not recommend stepping into shares near-term, the company's nearly 3% dividend yield and history of returning capital through buybacks should provide a backstop for the stock. If the shares corrected to $30, CCL would trade at 11.1 times our 2012 earnings-per-share estimates versus a 10-year average forward price-to-earnings ratio of 16.2x."