HANOVER (dpa-AFX) - German tourism services provider TUI AG (TUIFF.PK) decided Tuesday to sell a further 33.3 percent stake in its maritime shipping unit, Hapag-Lloyd AG, to the Hamburg-based Albert Ballin consortium as part of a process to exit the container shipping business.
The company's supervisory board approved the decision to float a tender for the stake. The Albert Ballin consortium already holds 62 percent of Hapag-Lloyd.
'Our exit from Container Shipping was set down more than three years ago with all partners in the Hamburg-based consortium. In the current year we have already reduced our invested capital by one billion euros. Exercising our tender right is now the next consistent step,' TUI CEO Michael Frenzel said in a statement.
The company noted that if an agreement not reached on the value of the stake in a first phase of the tender process, the market value will be determined by an auditor acting as arbitrator.
TUI agreed in October 2008 to sell shares in Hapag-Lloyd to a subsidiary of Albert Ballin KG at an enterprise value of 4.45 billion euros. It will now uses its contractually agreed exit right to be exercised by January 2, 2012 at the latest.
TUI currently holds a stake of around 38.4 percent in Hapag-Lloyd, and will have only a 5.1 percent stake following the completion of the tender for the 33.3 percent stake.
The company had earlier sold a 11.33 percent stake in Hapag-Lloyd earlier in the year in March to the Albert Ballin consortium. It had also decided in March to sell further shares in Hapag-Lloyd in the framework of an initial public offering.
In the event that the sale to Albert Ballin is not materialized by the end of September 2012, TUI will be entitled to sell the majority in Hapag-Lloyd to third-party investors. The consortium would then have to sell the required number of Hapag-Lloyd shares to the same investor at the same price to give the buyer majority control.
In Frankfurt's XETRA, TUI shares are currently trading at 3.947 euros, up 0.16 euros or 4.24 percent on a volume of 0.61 million shares.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX
© 2011 AFX News
