LONDON -- P&O Princess Cruises formally accepted Carnival
Corp.'s merger offer and will change its corporate name to Carnival
(UK) if the offer is accepted by P&O Princess shareholders this
spring.
The name change will not affect the P&O Princess brands,
which include Princess Cruises and P&O Cruises, executives
said.
The combination of the world's largest and third-largest cruise
companies will create a cruise operation with 99,964 berths, with
42,260 lower berths scheduled to be added over the next three and a
half years, according to a statement from P&O Princess.
Carnival's merger offer will be presented to P&O
shareholders at its next extraordinary general meeting (EGM), which
executives said will likely be held in late March.
The merger takes the form of a dual-listed company (DLC), and
both companies will continue to be separate legal entities with
their own board of directors and senior management. But P&O
Princess and Carnival will be jointly operated, and a single senior
executive management team will manage the combined group.
That group will be headed by Carnival Corp. chairman Micky
Arison; Peter Ratcliffe, P&O Princess' CEO, will be an
executive director along with heads of Carnival's current cruise
brands.
The endorsement of a complex DLC merger -- where both companies
retain their stock listings in the U.S. and U.K. -- by P&O
Princess' board of directors was expected. The board had until Jan.
10 to accept the new deal.
The London-based company earlier terminated its plan to merge
with Carnival rival Royal Caribbean Cruises; earlier this month
P&O Princess also terminated a plan to create a southern
Europe-based cruise line with RCCL.
Between now and the shareholder EGM, P&O Princess and
Carnival will file merger documents with the Securities and
Exchange Commission and listing authorities in the United Kingdom.
The deal also is subject to a second review by the European
Commission; executives from Carnival said the review was a
"formality" and expect clearance during the first quarter of
2003.