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Kuehne, Hamburg aiming to buy TUI stake in Hapag-Lloyd


Tuesday, 06 March 2012 11:04

Transportation businessman Klaus-Michael Kuehne and the city state of Hamburg aim to acquire all of shipping company Hapag-Lloyd, the daily Die Welt reported.


A 33 percent stake in Hapag-Lloyd will be acquired from German tourism and travel group TUI, it stated.


"The process isn't completed yet, but the dice have fallen," Kuehne was quoted as saying.


Kuehne and Hamburg already own a majority of Hapag-Lloyd via the Albert Ballin consortium, with Kuehne owning around 25 percent of Hapag-Lloyd shares.


The price of the share package and division between Kuehne and Hamburg's holdings isn't clear, but TUI has a book value for the package of around US$1.58 billion, the paper said.


The parties are negotiating the "final details of the purchase contract," Kuehne says.


TUI is seeking to divest its holding in Hapag-Lloyd and said in December it would offer a 33.3 percent stake in the shipping company to the consortium, which includes the city of Hamburg, as agreed under a previous contract. Albert Ballin already holds around 62 percent of Hapag-Lloyd.


TUI also said that if the consortium doesn't buy the 33.3 percent stake, TUI has the right to sell its entire 38.4 percent holding to third-party investors, and the consortium then must sell the required number of Hapag-Lloyd shares to the same investors to give them majority control.


TUI plans to use proceeds from the sale to reduce debt and expand its tourism operations.



Source: Cargonews Asia