Carnival Corp. shares were sharply lower Tuesday after the company announced plans to sell $1.5 billion of common stock.
The “at-the-market” offering, which will be used for general purposes, allows Carnival to capitalize on the 39% surge in its share price that occurred Monday after Pfizer and BioNTech announced their experimental vaccine showed greater than 90% effectiveness in preventing COVID-19 in those without prior evidence of infection.
JPMorgan Securities and Goldman Sachs & Co. will act as sales agents for the offering.
Carnival was forced to put operations on hold earlier this year as governments around the world issued stay-at-home orders in an effort to slow the spread of COVID.
The stoppage resulted in the cruise operator reporting a $2.9 billion loss, before adjustments, in the third quarter. The company has lost $8.01 billion
Carnival ended September with $8.2 billion in cash and said it expected to burn through an average of $530 million per month during the fourth quarter.
Carnival shares were down 62% this year through Monday, underperforming the S&P 500’s 9.9% gain.