TUI to increase reinvestment after completing Hapag sale

Travel operator TUI has raised €244.4m (£216m) from selling off its last stake in container shipping business Hapag-Lloyd.

The block sale followed earlier piecemeal disposals on the open market that raised a net €162.3m, which together with the final sale has totalled €406.7m.

The Anglo-German group had attributed a carrying value for the Hapag-Lloyd stake of €395m as at 31 March 2017 and said the disposals "are expected to result in a book profit of approximately €172.7m" in the financial year ending 30 September 2017.

Total proceeds are to be reinvested in its hotel and cruise brands, and to strengthen its balance sheet.

Group finance director Horst Baier said the sale concluded the non-core business disposal program set out when German business TUI AG merged with British sibling TUI Travel at the end of 2014, "achieving its strategic objective to transform TUI AG into a pure play vertically integrated tourism group".