Tuesday, February 24, 2009

TUI determined to sell Hapag-Lloyd

On Jan. 15, 2009 I made a post stating the sale of Hapag-Lloyd was in jeopardy.

The parent company TUI is bound and determined to get rid of Hapag-Lloyd, even if they have to pull off a shot-gun wedding.

TUI likely will acquire a bigger stake in Hapag-Lloyd than it originally planned in order to finalize the sale of the world’s fifth-largest ocean carrier.

The German tourism group bought back a 33.3 percent stake in Hapag-Lloyd after agreeing to sell the carrier to the Hamburg-based Albert Ballin investor group for 4.45 billion euros ($5.7 billion) in October.

TUI spokesman, said the price would not be renegotiated.

TUI continues to talk with the Albert Ballin consortium about the size and conditions of a loan it has offered to Hapag-Lloyd after the sale to ensure the carrier’s liquidity during the downturn in the container market. After the deal closes, Hapag-Lloyd will hold loans totaling around 2 billion euros ($2.6 billion), including 1.3 billion euros transferred from TUI.

TUI is prepared to lend Hapag-Lloyd an additional 1billion euros, according to reports in Germany.

Despite the latest hitches, TUI said it is confident the deal will close before the release of its full-year earnings on March 25.



click here for complete article in Journal of Commerce

No comments: