P&O Princess investors have moved away from a merger with Royal Caribbean toward a higher, hostile bid from Carnival Corp.
P&O Princess shareholders yesterday opted to postpone a vote on their agreed merger with Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. and get more time to consider a hostile £3.8 billion ($5.4 billion) bid from Carnival, the world's biggest cruise operator.
The bitter takeover, the cruise sector's largest-ever bid battle, comes as the three biggest cruise operators seek cost-cutting alliances to counter a slump in tourism since September 11th.
Both Caribbean and Princess have said an adjournment of the meeting would jeopardise their merger.
P&O Princess said some 253 million shares were cast in favour of an adjournment, with 151.8 million against.
It now is up to P&O Princess Chairman Mr Jeffrey Sterling to decide whether to set up another shareholder meeting.
Carnival and Royal Caribbean were not immediately available early today to comment on the adjournment.
But Royal Caribbean Chief Executive Mr Richard Fain said on Wednesday he expected the agreed deal and Carnival's hostile bid to fail if a vote on the Caribbean-Princess merger did not go ahead at the special meeting.