TUI AG (TUI1), the German tour operator that owns almost half of Hapag-Lloyd, sold part of its stake to the container line’s other shareholder and said it may sell more through an initial public offering.
TUI, which owns 49.8 percent of Hapag-Lloyd, will sell an 11.33 percent stake to Albert Ballin GmbH for 315 million euros ($439 million), the Hanover, Germany-based company said in a statement today. The price may increase by as much as 35 million euros if an IPO takes place, providing “certain conditions are met,” according to the statement.
TUI’s supervisory board authorized the executive board to sell more of Hapag-Lloyd through an IPO, the statement said, without providing further details. An IPO of the container line is scheduled to happen by April 15 and will raise 1 billion euros to 1.5 billion euros, according to two people familiar with the matter. That may give a valuation of 2.8 billion euros to 3.5 billion euros, depending on demand, the people said.
The stake sale “is good news, as it values TUI’s Hapag- Lloyd stake at almost 1.8 billion euros,” or about 2 billion euros including the potential premium from an IPO, said Stefan Kick, an analyst at Silvia Quandt & Cie. who has a “buy” recommendation on the stock. That value is “much more than was expected by most people.”
Hapag-Lloyd returned to profit last year as a rebound in global trade enabled it to raise container-carrying rates. The shipping line has returned to a “position of strength,” Chairman Michael Behrendt said in December.
An IPO would also be subject to the approval of Albert Ballin shareholders. Albert Ballin, a Hamburg-based investment group that includes German billionaire Klaus Michael Kuehne, M.M. Warburg & Co., HSH Nordbank AG and Hamburg’s state government, bought a majority stake in Hapag-Lloyd in 2009. TUI, which controls U.K. tour operator TUI Travel Plc (TT/), has said it wants to invest proceeds from the IPO into its tourism business.
Bloomberg
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