Sea Containers Ltd. Annual Report 1999 Sea Containers Ltd. Front cover: The Amalfi Coast Sea Containers is a Bermuda company with operating seen from a terrace of the headquarters (through subsidiaries) in London, England. It Hotel Caruso in Ravello, Italy. is owned primarily by U.S. shareholders and its common Orient-Express Hotels acquired the Caruso in 1999 shares have been listed on the New York Stock Exchange and will reconstruct the prop- (SCRA and SCRB) since 1974. erty during 2000-2001 with a The Company engages in three main activities: passenger view to re-opening in the transport, marine container leasing and the leisure business. spring of 2002. Capri and Paestum are nearby. Demand Passenger transport includes 100% ownership of Hoverspeed for luxury hotel accommodation Ltd., cross-English Channel fast ferry operators, the Isle of on the Amalfi Coast greatly Man Steam Packet Company, operators of fast and conven- exceeds supply. tional ferry services to and from the Isle of Man, the Great North Eastern Railway, operators of train services between London and Scotland, and 50% ownership of Neptun Maritime Oyj whose subsidiary Silja Line operates Contents fast and conventional ferry services in Scandinavia. Company description 2 Marine container leasing is conducted primarily through GE SeaCo SRL, a Barbados company owned 50% by Financial highlights 3 Sea Containers and 50% by GE Capital Corporation. Directors and officers 4 GE SeaCo is the largest lessor of marine containers in the world with a fleet of 1.1 million units. President’s letter to shareholders 7 The leisure business is conducted through Orient-Express Discussion by Division: Hotels Ltd., also a Bermuda company, which is 100% owned by Sea Containers. Orient-Express Hotels owns and/or oper- Passenger Transport 14 ates 35 leisure properties worldwide, including 26 hotels, six Leisure 18 tourist trains, two restaurants and a river cruise ship. It also Containers 22 partly owns and manages PeruRail, the sole provider of rail services in central and southern Peru. Property, Publishing and Plantations 26 Sea Containers owns three ports in the United Kingdom, Finance 28 The Illustrated London News publishing group, fresh fruit plantations in Brazil and the Ivory Coast, marine container Financial review – SEC Form 10-K 31 manufacturing facilities in the U.K. and U.S., a naval archi- Principal subsidiaries 80 tects company and a business travel company, both based in the U.K. It engages in property development, primarily in Shareholder and investor information 82 the British Isles. 2 SEA CONTAINERS LTD. Financial highlights 1999 1998 Change $000 $000 % Revenue 1,339,069 1,266,533 5.7 Earnings before corporate and finance costs: Passenger transport operations 69,486 61,919 12.2 Leisure operations 64,804 49,465 31.0 Container operations 61,639 75,386 (18.2) Other operations 150 76 97.4 Total 196,079 186,846 4.9 Net earnings 61,652 * 58,684 5.1 Total assets at book value 2,515,417 2,314,455 8.7 Long-term obligations 1,700,285 1,510,278 12.6 $ $% Net earnings per class A and class B common share - basic 3.30* 3.34 (1.2) - diluted 3.27* 3.11 5.1 Cash dividends per class A common share 1.10 0.885 24.3 Cash dividends per class B common share 0.9945 0.8045 23.6 * Before cumulative effect of change in accounting principle. 3 Directors and Officers Back row, left to right: Robert M. Riggs John D. Campbell Philip J.R. Schlee W. Murray Grindrod Member of Carter, Ledyard & Senior Counsel of Appleby Chairman of Robert Anderson & Chairman of Grindrod Unicorn Milburn (attorneys) Spurling & Kempe (attorneys) Co. Ltd. (a private investment firm) Group Ltd. (a shipping and transportation company) Front row, left to right: Charles N.C. Sherwood James B. Sherwood Ian Hilton Michael J.L. Stracey Partner of Schroder Ventures President of the Company Private investor Executive Vice President (retired) (a private equity investment firm) and Consultant to the Company 4 SEA CONTAINERS LTD. Officers other than the President Back row, left to right: Christopher W.M. Garnett Vice President, Rail James G. Struthers Vice President, Controller Nicholas J. Novasic Vice President, Funding, North America Stephen O. Whittam Vice President, Management Information Systems Front row, left to right: Michael V. Scawn Vice President, Funding Edwin S. Hetherington Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary Robert S. Ward Senior Vice President, Containers Daniel J. O’Sullivan Senior Vice President, Finance and Chief Financial Officer Simon M.C. Sherwood Senior Vice President, Leisure David G. Benson Senior Vice President, Passenger Transport James A. Beveridge Vice President, Administration and Property Regional Managers Franco Chresten A. Ian Robin Lynch To b y G . G r e y delle Piane Bjerrum Routledge Regional Regional Regional Regional Regional Manager, Manager, Manager, Manager, Manager, North America South America Mediterranean Asia Australasia 5 President’s letter to shareholders May 1, 2000 also suffered losses on Gothenburg/ Frederikshavn when duty free sales stopped and our competitor did Dear Shareholder, not increase rates to compensate. Again, we think a 1999 was a year of continued improvement in the more stable pricing environment will prevail in 2000 underlying net earnings of your company. Net and we have deployed a smaller, less costly ship on income excluding the effect of a compulsory the route, handed sales and marketing to Silja which accounting rule change was up 12% to $60.6 million has an excellent transport brand name in Sweden, James B. Sherwood (diluted net earnings per common share before and we will operate twice a week from Gothenburg President and Founder accounting rule change were up 5% to $3.27). to Norway where duty free sales are still permitted. This excellent result was achieved despite Our English Channel operations prospered in 1999 increased fuel prices in the second half of the year despite the loss of duty free sales. We operate six which adversely impacted net earnings by about vessels on four cross-Channel routes and were $6 million, higher interest costs on our floating rate particularly pleased to have completed a successful debt, a higher than normal cancellation rate of ferry first year on the Newhaven/Dieppe route. We and train services in the fourth quarter due to acquired Holyman’s interest in our joint venture Left: The colorful Cusco/Machu weather, and loss of duty free sales in the second half Dover/Ostend ferry service and their two vessels as a Picchu narrow gauge railway of the year on a few ferry routes. As I write this result of the Lang Corporation’s acquisition of runs through Peru’s Urubamba letter, fuel prices have come down by $10 per barrel Holyman. River Valley. Other than by hiking four days the train is the from their peak. In 2000 we will deploy one SuperSeaCat between only practical way of visiting I would like to confine my remarks this year to an Helsinki, Finland and Tallinn, Estonia marketed by the spectacular Machu Picchu overview of the main business units. Silja Line, and we intend to commence a joint Inca Sanctuary. venture service with a SeaCat on the Ancona, Italy to The Southern and Southeastern railways of Peru Fast ferry operations (excluding Silja Line, the Split, Croatia route together with Mediterranean were acquired in 1999 by a Isle of Man Steam Packet Company, cargo ships and Shipping Company. Besides being the owner of joint venture between Orient- ports). SNAV, the largest fast ferry operator in southern Italy, Express Hotels and Peruval. We suffered losses on our start-up Belfast, Northern Mediterranean Shipping is the world’s fourth largest They are managed by Orient- Express Hotels under the Ireland to Troon, Scotland route in 1999 due to containership operator and a valued major customer brand PeruRail. Another joint intense competition from operators to the much less for GE SeaCo’s leased containers. venture between Orient- desirable port of Stranraer in Scotland, 50 miles to Our Liverpool, England to Dublin, Ireland Express Hotels and Peruval the south. Nonetheless, the customers voted with SuperSeaCat route (formerly a duty free sales route) leases the Monasterio Hotel in their feet and supported the Troon service. Our has been altered in 2000 to provide one round trip Cusco and the Machu Picchu Sanctuary Lodge in the competitors lost money as well. We think a much sailing per day at the peak period followed by one national park at Machu Picchu. more stable pricing environment will prevail this year round trip sailing on Liverpool/Isle of Man (the latter Orient-Express Hotels also and we have been able to cut costs significantly. We was never a duty free sales route). manages these properties. 7 Our New York fast ferry commuter services are investments in the Baltic which will strengthen straining to accommodate demand and two more profits in the region. In 2002 we will be considering ships are now under construction in New England, the acquisition of 100% of Neptun Maritime. which we will long term time charter in order to meet this demand and open a new route. Ports. We own the ports of Folkestone, Newhaven We expect greatly improved results from these ferry and Heysham, as well as a large tract of port land operations in 2000 and future years. near Harwich, all in Britain. These investments performed well in 1999 and we are in negotiation to Isle of Man Steam Packet Company. This sell Newhaven and the land at Harwich in 2000 at business continues to generate increased profits year satisfactory prices. on year. Freight volumes have been rising in step with the increased economic growth on the Isle of Marine Container Leasing.