TUI sheds final stake in ship-owner Hapag-Lloyd

FRANKFURT AM MAIN – 11 July 2017: German tourism giant TUI said Monday it had sold its remaining stake in shipping firm Hapag-Lloyd, the final stage in a restructuring towards mass-market tourism.

The Hanover-based firm raised around 250 million euros ($284.6 million) after selling 8.5 million shares at Monday's Frankfurt closing price of 29.50 euros per share.
It followed TUI's sale of around six million shares since March.

Monday's sale means "we have successfully completed selling off all the companies and holdings unrelated to the core activity of the group," TUI finance director Horst Baier said in a statement.

Hapag-Lloyd was once a subsidiary of TUI, which has been trimming business units with the aim of focusing completely on tourism after merging with British subsidiary TUI Travel in 2014.

The group is building itself up as a one-stop shop for flights, hotels, cruises and package holidays for the mass market.

For its part, Hapag-Lloyd merged with Gulf firm United Arab Shipping Company (UASC) earlier this year to form the fifth-largest container shipping group worldwide.

Seaborne cargo firms face choppy waters at present, with downward pressure on prices due to overcapacity.