Carnival Wraps Up $1.81 Billion Debt Sale to Replace Covid Debt

Carnival Corp. sold a $1.31 billion leveraged loan and $500 million in junk bonds as the cruise operator replaces expensive Covid-19 era debt and slashes its interest costs.

The JPMorgan Chase & Co.-led loan, due 2027, was upsized from $1 billion and priced 300 basis points over the Secured Overnight Financing Rate at a discount of 99.5 cents on the dollar, according to a person familiar with the matter. That’s tighter than the initial discussions of a margin of 350 basis points over the benchmark and a discounted price of 99 and 99.25 cents. The deadline for the loan accelerated to Tuesday from Thursday, a sign of strong demand from investors.