Do More With Reuters
Partner Services

TUI shareholders blast restructuring plan -reports

Sat Jan 26, 2008 7:55pm IST
 
Email | Print | | Single Page
[-] Text [+]

FRANKFURT, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Big shareholders in German travel and shipping group TUI (TUIGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) oppose management's plan to integrate container shipping arm Hapag-Lloyd by eliminating it as an independent unit, German media reported.

TUI said on Jan. 23 that its supervisory board had given the green light for a review to merge Hapag-Lloyd into the group, a move intended to signal management's intent to hold on to the container shipping business and make it harder to break up TUI into separate units.

U.S. investor Guy Wyser-Pratte, who bought 1 percent of TUI in September, has said a break-up would be one way to maximise the value of the group, which has a market capitalisation of 3.6 billion euros ($5.3 billion).

German current affairs magazine Der Spiegel said Norwegian billionaire John Frederiksen, who owns five percent of TUI, and Russian steel tycoon Alexei Mordashov, also a TUI shareholder, had criticised the plan to integrate Hapag-Lloyd.

In a letter to TUI supervisory board Chairman Juergen Krumnow, Frederiksen has called for the plan to be stopped, the weekly said in a preview received on Saturday ahead of publication on Monday.

The Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper on Saturday quoted Wyser-Pratte as saying he saw a chance to form an alliance with Frederiksen against TUI Chief Executive Michael Frenzel. Wyser-Pratte in October called for Frenzel's resignation.

A TUI spokesman told Reuters on Saturday that a letter from Frederiksen existed, but declined further comment.

TUI's next annual general meeting is scheduled for May 16. (Additional reporting by Arno Schuetze in Hanover) (Reporting by Peter Starck; editing by Tony Austin)

REUTERS WEEKEND

Glory for Big B

Lifetime award for Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan.  Video 

'Trashy' Affair

Beijing man turns unwanted plastic bags into kites.  Video 

 
The new Droid phone, a Motorola Inc. and Verizon Wireless phone based on Google Inc's Android 2.0 system, is shown at a media event in New York October 28, 2009.REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
Motorola Droid

Not the Droid you’re looking for?  Blog 

View of the Casa Poporului or House of the People, now the Parliament Palace, in downtown Bucharest November 6, 2009.  REUTERS/Bogdan Cristel
Travel Postcard

48 hours in Bucharest for architecture buffs.  Full Article 

 
Russian Finance Minister Alexey Kudrin poses with his G20 colleagues and central bank leaders during the family photo at the G20 Finance Ministers meeting at a hotel in St. Andrews, Scotland. REUTERS/POOL New
Pledge to support economies

G20 financial leaders pledged to prepare strategies to end emergency support for their economies, but to keep the aid flowing until recovery was assured.  Full Article | Related Story 

Photo
Miss England gives up crown over brawl reports Friday, 6 Nov 2009 

LONDON (Reuters) - Beauty pageant winner Miss England gave up her title on Friday after reports she had been involved in a nightclub brawl with another beauty queen.  Full Article