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Ocean
liner
in the Caribbean:
Cruise companies like the US giant Carnival are among the losers of the corona crisis, where the tremors are now continuing
Photo: Andy Newman / AP
Last week, Lufthansa made it clear how shaky the situation is for many companies that have been hit hard by the Corona crisis since the beginning of 2020 and that are now gradually hoping for a comeback: Business is already picking up again, revenue and earnings numbers improve. But a threatening shadow hovers over everything: The pandemic is still not over, especially the highly contagious delta variant of the corona virus is causing uncertainty. Should there be restrictions again due to the number of infections, which are already rising again in many places, companies such as Lufthansa, the travel company Tui or the card broker CTS Eventim could hit hard - and put their share prices under further pressure.
As Lufthansa announced last week, it has succeeded in reducing losses with the help of increasing passenger numbers and cost reductions. In the second quarter, the adjusted operating result amounted to minus 952 million euros, according to the aviation group. The loss was much lower than in the same quarter of the previous year, when the corona lockdown caused a deficit of 1.7 billion euros. Analysts had also expected a bigger minus.
So much for the good news. However, it seems uncertain whether Germany's leading airline will continue to improve. The decisive factor should primarily be the further course of the corona pandemic with the delta variant. For example in the USA, which has so far kept its borders closed for Europeans in view of the corona worries. According to recent reports, that could change soon. Vaccinated EU citizens may therefore be able to re-enter the United States in the near future. Whether this will happen is still open - and Lufthansa itself named the possible opening of the North American market as a decisive factor for its further course of business.
For Lufthansa shareholders, the motto continues: tremble.
The airline's paper went steeply downwards in the Corona crash at the beginning of 2020.
Since then there has been a slight recovery, but of late the price losses have predominated again.
A Lufthansa share is currently not even worth ten euros.
Wait what Tui will announce on Thursday
The course of the course at the tourism group Tui looks similar.
Its share also collapsed in early 2020 and recovered somewhat until a few weeks ago.
Then the Delta variant appeared on the scene and thwarted hopes for a carefree summer holiday season in 2021. With Portugal and Spain, for example, two popular travel regions have now been declared risk areas again.
It goes without saying that this also makes the shareholders nervous: the Tui paper has been on another decline since the beginning of June. One date on which investors will perk up their ears is August 12th, which is the Thursday of this week. Then Tui will publish its results for the third fiscal quarter - and will probably also announce something about the further business prospects. It is quite possible that TUI boss
Friedrich Joussen will also use
the opportunity to talk about the Delta variant.
Passengers on the ships of the world's largest cruise line, Carnival, can experience first hand how much the highly contagious virus variation is affecting the tourism business, which is just awakening again. The Group's ocean liners have already been on the move for a few months, and because vaccinated passengers in particular are allowed to travel with them, the situation on board has evidently lately been as if the corona pandemic was happening on another planet: from a mega-ship with a 70 percent occupancy rate, Without masks, without corona tests and without social distance, for example, a blogger reports on the travel platform "The Points Guy". However, this is now over for the time being: In view of the rapid expansion of the delta, Carnival is once again introducing compulsory masks and tests on its cruise ships.
Will that also trigger a change of direction on the stock exchange? Similar to other tourism stocks, the Carnival paper has been falling rapidly since the beginning of June. A further advance of the delta variant should lead to additional losses.
The tourism industry is by no means the only branch of the economy that sees its corona comeback threatened by the ongoing virus threat. The number of infections is also being followed with concern in the entertainment industry. An example: the ticket broker and event organizer CTS Eventim. The group's share lost about half of its value in the 2020 Corona crash. Since then, the paper has recovered noticeably - with strong fluctuations - whereby the hope of a return to normality in the event business may have played an important role. This comeback is currently once again in question - and the trembling among investors continues.
Michael Rapino
, head of the US event marketer Live Nation, recently
summed up the hopes of the industry
to analysts. "The momentum for a return to life is increasing every month," said Rapino. "Looking ahead to 2022 and 2023, all of our indicators point to a busy time for concerts and other live events." Live Nation shares have already recovered strongly from their Corona slump and recently even listed at times above the level of early 2020. But 2022 and 2023, the years to which CEO Rapino referred, are still a bit long. Investors will have to tremble that long - at least.
The business of travel service providers such as Uber or Lyft was also severely affected by the corona restrictions - with the corresponding fluctuations in share prices.
Lyft CFO
Brian Roberts
recently gave customers a vivid picture of the situation.
"The pandemic is not over yet, especially given new virus variants and a return of restrictions in certain markets," said Roberts, according to US broadcaster CNN.
The outlook for the future is accordingly uncertain and could continue to cause fluctuations.
An assessment that is valid beyond the transport service industry.
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