Carnival Corp. entered 2020 with a full head of steam, having reported record sales and profit the year before. Three years into the pandemic, it’s a different company.The cruise line giant, like other ship operators, shut down for more than a year due to COVID. It sold new shares and borrowed heavily, tripling its long-term debt to US$32 billion over the past three years. Rising interest rates will make that sum even tougher to pay down.
Carnival shares trade as if more trouble lies ahead. The stock is down more than 80 per cent since December 2019 — the worst performer among the three big cruise companies — and recently touched a 30-year bottom. “At the end of the day, we think expectations are low,” said Credit Suisse Securities analyst Benjamin Chaiken.It’s also been a rough year for Beyond Meat Inc.
CEO Ethan Brown maintains that plant-based meat will eventually replace the real thing. Investors are far from convinced; the stock has fallen about 95 per cent from its peak in 2019 and short interest accounts for around 40 per cent of the available shares. It’s unclear how long Brown — or his company — will survive without a meaningful turnaround.That’s when when an interest payment is due on its 2029 bonds.
The company’s largest creditors have agreed to jointly work to get a deal with management to refinance its debt. Carvana bonds have traded below 50 cents on the dollar, indicating a high chance of default.Next year will be crucial for Verve Therapeutics Inc., a biotech company developing a gene-editing treatment for heart disease.
Clinical trials are still moving forward overseas, and Verve plans to share data from them next year. That should give investors a better sense of how well the drug might work and how safe it could be. But even if everything looks good, Verve will still need years yet to prove the drug’s promise — and assure investors there’s enough appetite for it. The company says it has enough cash to last through 2025.
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