Antitrust officials from the European Union are expected to rule on whether the purchase can go forward as soon as the end of this week; TUI expects the sale to a Hamburg-based “Albert Ballin” consortium will be completed before the end of the first quarter.
And while TUI is not planning to lend funds directly to the Ballin group, a TUI spokesman said the company may be willing to assist Hapag-Lloyd after the purchase is completed if needed as banks renegotiate loans with the new owners. He said TUI would want to be paid a regular market rate for such assistance.
When the deal was announced in October, TUI AG said it would sell the company to the Ballin investment group for 4.45 billion euro, but then buy back one-third interest in the company for 700 million euro as an “entrepreneurial stake.”
The Albert Ballin investors — the group is named after a famous turn-of-the-century ship owner who was general director of Hamburg America Line — include Klaus-Michael K'hne, chairman of the big forwarder K'ehne + Nagel; the city state of Hamburg; the investment bank MM Warburg; and insurers Signal-Iduna and HanseMerkur. ' Chris Dupin
