Carnival Corporation counts cost of Costa Concordia’s crash

Carnival Corporation, owner of the cruise ship Costa Concordia, estimated the impact to 2012 earnings for loss of use alone to be around $90 million. The group said it also anticipated further costs to the business. It’s shares were down 17 percent in early morning trade, on Monday (following the collision).

Pier Luigi Foschi, CEO of Costa Crociere S.p.A., said the Costa Concordia is unlikely to return to use. The Costa Concordia was insured for 500 million dollars and insurers are likely to declare the total loss of the Costa Concordia, but the insurance doesn’t cover for loss of business and that’s likely to hurt. “We aren’t worried about the insurance coverage, what we are worried about is the damage to the image of the company,” Foschi said in the Italian Senate. “We have enough funds to cover loss of ship as well as the claims and costs linked to the accident.”

Costa Crociere, which blamed captain Schettino for the accident, has offered passengers compensation of $14,500 plus a refund and costs of travel home.

It had originally given passengers until Tuesday February 14th to accept the offer, but extended the deadline to March 31 to allow them to review the proposal with less urgency. Costa Crociere said the offer was available only to passengers who had returned home while “The families of deceased and missing victims and guests who were injured will be covered under a separate proposal based on their individual circumstances”.
Cristina M, an Italian girl of 30 years (from Milan) traveling in the ‘Costa Concordia’ cruise, lost her baby when she was pregnant five months, days after the ship ran aground; lawyers of the girl joined the collective demand that passengers aboard Costa Concordia and demanded Costa Crociere an extra compensation of one million euros for moral and physical damages cannot join.

Dozens of additional survivors of the Costa Concordia shipwreck off Italy have joined a Florida lawsuit that accuses Carnival Corporation, the ship’s owners, of gross negligence and fraud, and asks for at least $528 million in damages: $78 million in compensatory damages and $450 million in punitive damages, plus interest and attorney costs.

The original lawsuit asked for $10 million in compensatory damages and at least $450 million in punitive damages.