Q – (12.9.24) – I keep seeing these rather charming, British voice-over ads for Viking Cruises. It seems like they are among the largest lines but I am wondering who owns them and are they really that successful? The ads keep talking to me and inviting me to sail – but who is really doing the inviting?
A – There really is no such thing as “Viking Cruises”, There are three brands of cruises, Viking River Cruises, Viking Ocean Cruises, and Viking Expeditions which, together, form a single company “Viking” that is owned by the Norwegian billionaire Torstein Hagen. The company is privately-owned, an anomaly among mega-lines and Hagen owns 77% of the company.
It is quite a success story. Tor had been CEO of Royal Viking Line in the early eighties. In 1997, serving as a consultant, he helped a group of Russian oligarchs buy a shipping company. Out of gratitude, they sold him four river boats to launch his own company at a sharply discounted rate. In 2000, Hagen was able to quickly expand and his purchased KD River Cruises of Europe and their fleet of 22 vessels. KD also owned several advantageous anchorages which Viking still uses to its advantage.
Viking does its Marketing out of a headquarters in Los Angeles but the real company headquarters is in Basel, Switzerland. This is where crew hiring, training, and marine operations is centered.
With more than 90 ships sailing on rivers, lakes and oceans around the world, Viking is one of cruising’s major players. Its European river fleet is the largest in Europe and Viking has river ships on the Mekong, the Nile and the Mississippi. The fleet continues to expand. Ten more Viking Longships will join the river fleet by the end of 2026 and a new Mekong ship, Viking Tonle, launches in October 2025.
The ocean fleet includes two luxury expedition ships and 10 new-build ocean ships (all identical). Viking Vela is due to launch in December this year and Viking Vesta in 2025.
Of course, with more than 90 ships in its fleet, and a massive new-ship building program underway, Viking is no stranger to debt.
Entering 2023 it had about 4.7 billion in debt. Viking’s interest expenses ballooned 41% between 2020 and 2022, and cruise operators have generally been looking to cut funding costs by selling new notes.
Viking, the only pure-play luxury cruise line, has reported its first quarterly earnings since going public. The company is targeting English-speakers over the age of 55, a demographic with most of the wealth and a broad eagerness to travel. The cruise line generated 4.7 billion in revenue in fiscal 2023, compared to 3.18 billion in 2022 and 625.1 million in 2021. Like most of the cruise lines operating in North America, Viking profit patterns are extremely positive and debt is being paid down.
