TUI decides to separate tourist, container businesses

TUI decides to separate tourist, container businesses TUI AG and Hapag-Lloyd are going their separate ways,
   The executive and supervisory board of tourism company TUI AG, said after a meeting Monday that they have decided “to prepare a separation of container shipping from the group. All options including a spin-off, merger or divestment as a single entity are going to be examined.”
   TUI said it will present further information at its annual press briefing-analysts’ meeting on Tuesday.
   Speculation has been building for months about the future of Hapag-Lloyd, the world’s fifth-largest container shipping company.
   On Monday, Reuters quoted Christian Olearius, owner of private Hamburg bank MM Warburg, as saying his bank represents a group of investors who want to keep Hapag-Lloyd as an independent shipping company.
   Swiss logistics company Kuehne + Nagel is reportedly part of the investor group.
   Last week Klaus Michael Kuehne, chairman of the firm, said in an interview with German newspaper Die Welt that he liked the idea of TUI, the tourism company that owns Hapag-Lloyd, spinning off the container shipping unit. Kuehne told the paper he would personally buy shares in Hapag-Lloyd if it became a separate company.
   The TUI supervisory board is meeting today amid growing pressure by some large investors for Hapag-Lloyd to be spun off or sold.
   Shipping magnate John Fredriksen, chairman and chief executive officer of the tanker company Frontline, has reportedly increased his stake in TUI to somewhere between 5 percent and 10 percent.
   Fredriksen and other dissident shareholders like American investor Guy Wyser-Pratte are urging TUI to make Hapag-Lloyd an independent company.
   Forbes reported Russian investor Alexei Mordashov, who holds about 5 percent of TUI’s shares, also called for a split-up of the company.
   There have also been periodic press reports that Hapag-Lloyd might merge or be acquired by Neptune Orient Lines, the Singapore-based parent of APL Ltd., or with Hamburg Sud, the 14th-largest container carrier, which like Hapag-Lloyd is based in Hamburg.
   TUI acquired Hapag-Lloyd in 1997. In 2005, Hapag-Lloyd doubled in size when it merged with CP Ships.