TRAVEL WEEKLY BUSINESS
TUI TRAVEL AND TUI AG AGREE TERMS FOR LONG-MOOTED £5BN PROPOSED MERGER
Phil Davies
Tui Travel and its German parent Tui AG have agreed terms for a proposed merger. The combined group would have a value of about €6.5 billion. A majority of shareholders of the two firms must vote in favour if the merger is to go ahead. Resolutions are expected to be put to shareholders by the end of October. The two businesses said corporate
streamlining would lead to potential cost savings of at least €45 million a year, in addition to a 7% fall in tax rates to 24%. Additional net cost savings of €20 million (£16 million) a year are expected through the integration of inbound services into the mainstream tourism business. Peter Long and Friedrich Joussen would
be joint chief executives of the combined group, with Long to become chairman of the supervisory board of Tui AG and Joussen leading the combined group as sole chief executive from February 2016. Long said: “The merger will strengthen
and future-proof our combined business by enhancing the certainty of long-term unique holiday growth, and by reinforcing our competitive advantage through further control over the end-to-end customer experience. “Friedrich Joussen and I are committed
to working closely to ensure that we achieve significant synergies, cost savings, commercial benefits and long-term growth as the world’s number-one integrated leisure tourism business.” Joussen said: “The potential cost savings
Peter Long would become chairman of Tui AG
CENTER PARCS TIPPED FOR FLOTATION AFTER
STRONG SUMMER Center Parcs has been tipped to pursue a £2 billion-plus stock market flotation in the next year after achieving 99% occupancy this summer. This came despite the addition of a fifth village, the new £250 million Center Parcs Woburn Forest. The new property in Bedfordshire, which opened in June, achieved the same occupancy levels as Center Parcs’ four established villages. Chief executive Martin Dalby said the Woburn
Forest village had been fully booked at full price throughout the summer, with the exception of a two-week introductory promotion. He said occupancy across all five venues had
reached 99% in the school holidays. “We always hold back a couple of lodges to
“The merger will reinforce our competitive advantage through further control over the end-to-end customer experience”
are significantly higher than expected. The new Tui will be the leading integrated tourism group in the world and an innovative pioneer in the industry. “We will set new standards in our industry
with respect to growth, quality as well as brand promise and create significant opportunities for shareholders, customers and our employees. “Our 74,000 employees worldwide will
have completely new development and career prospects. The new Tui will be a truly international group and thus also one of the most international employers in Europe.”
cover all eventualities, so we were basically full,” he said. “In the six-week period from mid-July to the end of August, a total of 260,000 people had a holiday at Center Parcs, which is pretty phenomenal.” There was speculation last year that Blackstone
Group, which owns Center Parcs, would go ahead with an initial public offering once Woburn Forest had proved itself. Analysts now expect that could happen as early as next spring. Dalby said: “Our job was always to get Woburn up and running and prove it could be as successful as our other parks.”
Center Parcs: 99% occupancy
18 September 2014 —
travelweekly.co.uk • 71
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