Carnival-RCCL battle for princess moves to the shareholder front. (In the News).(Carnival Corp. and Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. fight for P and O Princess Cruises acqusition )

Travel Agent, October, 2002 by Young, Susan J.

ORLANDO -- For months P&O Princess Cruises CEO Peter Ratcliffe and his board refused to talk to Carnival Corp. about Carnival's hostile bid for Princess, maintaining that Princess' proposed merger offer with Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (RCCL) was superior and that he couldn't talk to Carnival under the terms of that proposal. But the approval by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) this month of both merger plans has changed all that.

With all necessary approvals from European and U.S. regulators, making the Carnival offer now "deliverable," Ratcliffe says his board will indeed talk to Carnival. And depending on Carnival's structuring of the deal, Ratcliffe says that merger could be "superior" in value to the original RCCL deal. Richard Fain, RCCL's...

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