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Carnival still in for Princess
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January 24, 2002: 3:28 p.m. ET
Royal Caribbean shakes off recent attempts by rival to break up Princess merger.
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NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Carnival Corp. attempted Thursday to boost its hostile bid for P&O Princess Cruises while rival Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., which has inked a $7.4 billion merger with Princess, shook off the move.
Miami-based Carnival (CCL: up $0.09 to $26.14, Research, Estimates) said Thursday that a proposed Carnival-Princess combination would offer savings of $100 million a year, in the first full financial year following completion of the deal.
The statement is Carnival's ninth announcement regarding its efforts to breakup the Royal-Princess merger. Carnival, the world's largest cruise operator, is trying to wreck a merger between Royal Caribbean and P&O Princess (POC: down $0.16 to $22.39, Research, Estimates) -- the second- and third-largest global players, worth around $7.4 billion.
The cruise operator originally bid $4.5 billion in December for P&O Princess. Carnival then sweetened it offer on Jan. 17 to $5 billion.
Earlier this week, P&O Princess rejected the revised bid.
Royal Caribbean (RCL: up $0.12 to $17.21, Research, Estimates), also of Miami, said Carnival's savings claims offer little and fails to address central issues. Carnival has missed its chance to make a proper offer and is instead focused on thwarting Royal's efforts, said company Chairman and CEO Richard Fain.
"I have total confidence that the Royal Caribbean/P&O Princess combined entity, with its larger scale and broader reach, will deliver significant operational and financial gains to shareholders," Fain said. 
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