TUI AG plans to approach potential buyers in late May or early June for its Hapag-Lloyd container shipping division, which analysts value at up to 4.6 billion euros ($7.3 billion), TUI said on Monday.
Under pressure from shareholders to kill its twin-pillar strategy of tourism and shipping, TUI said in an open letter to shareholders: "We have reviewed and selected experienced external advisers to support us."
It added that it had chosen Deutsche Bank, Citigroup and Greenhill as financial advisers.
Shares of TUI were down 0.1 percent at 18.29 euros by 0837 GMT. The blue-chip DAX index was down 0.5 percent. The shares have risen about 9 percent in the past month on investors' hopes that splitting up the company will unlock value. TUI also said it had offered Norwegian shipping magnate John Fredriksen a seat on its supervisory board.
Fredriksen -- who owns 11.747 percent of TUI shares and is the group's largest single shareholder ahead of Russian billionaire Alexei Mordashov -- has been a critic of TUI's twin-pillar strategy, along with activist U.S. investor Guy Wyser-Pratte, who owns 1 percent of TUI shares.
NO OFFERS YET
TUI has not yet received any offers for Hapag-Lloyd, the world's fifth-largest container shipping group, whose separation it hopes to complete this year, a timetable too short for a spin-off but long enough for a merger or sale, TUI Chief Executive Michael Frenzel has said.
Wyser-Pratte has said many parties were interested in TUI's shipping unit, including Denmark's A.P. Moeller Maersk A/S, Singapore's Neptune Orient Lines Ltd (NOL), France's CMA CGM and a big Korean shipping company.
NOL said on Wednesday it was looking at Hapag-Lloyd among options for consolidation among shipping firms.
"We have to look at all opportunities. So of course we have to look at this," NOL Chief Executive Thomas Held told reporters on the sidelines of the group's annual general meeting.
Under pressure from shareholders to kill its twin-pillar strategy of tourism and shipping, TUI said in an open letter to shareholders: "We have reviewed and selected experienced external advisers to support us."
It added that it had chosen Deutsche Bank, Citigroup and Greenhill as financial advisers.
Shares of TUI were down 0.1 percent at 18.29 euros by 0837 GMT. The blue-chip DAX index was down 0.5 percent. The shares have risen about 9 percent in the past month on investors' hopes that splitting up the company will unlock value. TUI also said it had offered Norwegian shipping magnate John Fredriksen a seat on its supervisory board.
Fredriksen -- who owns 11.747 percent of TUI shares and is the group's largest single shareholder ahead of Russian billionaire Alexei Mordashov -- has been a critic of TUI's twin-pillar strategy, along with activist U.S. investor Guy Wyser-Pratte, who owns 1 percent of TUI shares.
NO OFFERS YET
TUI has not yet received any offers for Hapag-Lloyd, the world's fifth-largest container shipping group, whose separation it hopes to complete this year, a timetable too short for a spin-off but long enough for a merger or sale, TUI Chief Executive Michael Frenzel has said.
Wyser-Pratte has said many parties were interested in TUI's shipping unit, including Denmark's A.P. Moeller Maersk A/S, Singapore's Neptune Orient Lines Ltd (NOL), France's CMA CGM and a big Korean shipping company.
NOL said on Wednesday it was looking at Hapag-Lloyd among options for consolidation among shipping firms.
"We have to look at all opportunities. So of course we have to look at this," NOL Chief Executive Thomas Held told reporters on the sidelines of the group's annual general meeting.