Royal Caribbean Cruises has launched a $3.3 billion bond offering, pledging 28 of its ships as collateral, as they forecast heavy losses for the first quarter. The company expects to report a preliminary first-quarter net loss of $1.44 billion compared to a profit of $249.7 million a year earlier, as it prepares to write down the value of its Silversea Cruises unit and several ships by $1 billion to $1.3 billion. Royal Caribbean has not specified which ships it had pledged for its debt offering. It had vessels with a net book value of about $22.7 billion as of Dec. 31, including the world’s largest cruise ship – Symphony of the Seas.
