Viking held its first earnings call as a public company on Wednesday, reporting a strong first quarter and a robust booking curve for the rest of 2024 and for 2025.
The cruise company's Q1 revenue grew year over year from $629 million to $718 million, a 14% increase.
Viking detailed its booking curve during the earnings call, with company chairman and CEO Tor Hagen saying that the company would be providing booking curve stats to shareholders on a quarterly basis, just as it had done with bondholders before Viking was a public company.
Viking won't be providing earnings and revenue guidance like other public companies do.
"We believe in the importance of taking a long-term view of our business and creating shareholder value," Hagen said. "We do not feel we should manage the business for short-term earnings, and as such we will not be providing guidance in the same manner as many other public companies."
Later in the call, he added that Viking will "stick with what we have done over what we hope to do."
Viking said it is 91% booked for 2024 with $4.6 billion in advanced bookings, a 15% increase in advanced sales from a year earlier. For 2025, Viking is 39% booked with $2.5 billion in advanced bookings, a 27% year-over-year increase. Hagen said cruises are being booked at "attractive" prices.
Despite the strong quarter, occupancy dipped from 93.5% to 92.1% for river cruises, primarily due to lower occupancy for Egypt cruises, said Viking CFO Leah Talactac. Ocean cruise occupancy rose from 93.9% to 94.5%.
Viking's Q1 net loss widened to $494 million because of a $330.5 million impact from a private placement derivative loss related to the company's Series C preference shares, which converted into ordinary shares prior to the consummation of Viking's initial public offering.
Excluding that one-time item, Viking said Q1 was relatively strong, considering that Europe river cruises don't really get going until Q2. The company's adjusted loss before interest and taxes was $4 million compared to $51 million a year earlier.
Viking's ship orders
Viking has 18 river ships in its order book through 2026 (11 for Europe, six for Egypt and one for Vietnam/Cambodia). During the Q1 call, Viking said it would add four more river ships in 2027 and four in 2028.
The company has six ocean ships in its order book through 2028, and this month Viking has exercised options on its 17th and 18th ships, scheduled for delivery in 2029. There are options for two additional ocean ships that would be delivered in 2030.