TUI reportedly plans capital raising

Europe’s largest tour operator TUI, plans to raise capital in order to overcome covid-19 related financial difficulties.

According to the news of the German Handelsblatt newspaper, TUI, aims to increase its capital between 700 Million to 1 Billion Euros. The Hannover based travel giant is registered on the London Stock Exchange.

TUI, reported a loss of 1.45 Billion Euros for the second quarter due to the Covid-19 crisis and received around 3 Billion Euros funding from the German state.

According to the report, Russian billionaire Alexei Mordashov, holding 25% of the company’s shares, is expected to provide around 300 million Euros of additional capital.

Mordashov has been a shareholder at TUI since 2007. Since then, he has increased his share in the group from 3% to 24.9%. Mordashov also owns 90 % of TUI’s subsidiaries in Russia and Ukraine since October 2018 .

TUI CEO Fritz Joussen said at a meeting in mid-August, “We have to do something about the balance sheet. For instance, it could be a capital increase ”. Therefore it’s believed that Tui’s other shareholders, including the Egyptian billionaire El Chiaty family and the Spanish hotelier family Riu, are also aware of the plan.