Princess votes to delay merger

THE world's biggest cruise line operator, Carnival, today won its battle to convince P&O Princess shareholders they should consider its £3.8bn hostile bid before agreeing the friendly merger with Royal Caribbean.

P&O Princess shareholders voted by a huge majority to delay the decision on merging with Royal until both proposals had been through monopoly regulators. Effectively, that meant they had ignored Royal's threats to walk away from the merger if the decision was postponed.

After an unprecedented 13 1/2-hour delay in the count from Princess's EGM yesterday, it was announced at 4.30am today that 253m shares were cast in favour of an adjournment and 151.8m against.

Princess chief executive Peter Ratcliffe, whose board had urged its shareholders to reject Carnival's advances and accept the merger, said: 'I would have preferred them to have voted in favour of our proposal, but the shareholders simply want more time to consider.'

Carnival chairman Micky Arison, who mounted the board's podium at yesterday's meeting, said he was delighted at the adjournment. Royal's EGM in the US was postponed last night and is now expected to be adjourned.