TUI 8pc share drop said be sparked by Hapag loan plan
German travel-shipping giant TUI shares dropped eight per cent this week after the company said it was considering a loan to its container unit Hapag-Lloyd after its sale to a Hamburg investors group in early March.
Fears have been expressed that the credit crisis could end the sale and such concerns are said to have driven TUI stock as low as EUR5.90 (US$7.57). This situation was aggravated by rumours of a coming TUI profit warning, but the parent company denies any such thing is in the works.
The Financial Times reported that TUI said it was "thinking about taking a role in the financing of the new Hapag-Lloyd" after the sale because banks were not forthcoming in the current credit crisis.
Other sources told the FT the EUR4.45 billion (US$5.7 billion) Hapag-Lloyd deal would go ahead as planned.
Hamburg investors will pay EUR1.4 billion for a two-thirds stake in Hapag-Lloyd, with TUI holding the other third of a new company to be called Albert Ballin Holding, worth EUR700 million.
TUI said the need for money had arisen since the mid-October deal, because Hapag-Lloyd's old lenders had seen their own balance sheets shrink.
"The financing being considered by TUI is a symptom of the credit crunch and that many banks aren't [lending] or can't lend as they once did," a source told the FT.
Royal Bank of Scotland, one of six banks that agreed to lend $750 million to buy 29 containerships then owned by TUI but operated by Hapag-Lloyd, was badly burnt in the financial crisis and has since come under control of the UK government.
Its British government controllers are anxious to curb the bank's foreign lending, with RBS exposure to the ship deal said to be about EUR100 million.
Fears have been expressed that the credit crisis could end the sale and such concerns are said to have driven TUI stock as low as EUR5.90 (US$7.57). This situation was aggravated by rumours of a coming TUI profit warning, but the parent company denies any such thing is in the works.
The Financial Times reported that TUI said it was "thinking about taking a role in the financing of the new Hapag-Lloyd" after the sale because banks were not forthcoming in the current credit crisis.
Other sources told the FT the EUR4.45 billion (US$5.7 billion) Hapag-Lloyd deal would go ahead as planned.
Hamburg investors will pay EUR1.4 billion for a two-thirds stake in Hapag-Lloyd, with TUI holding the other third of a new company to be called Albert Ballin Holding, worth EUR700 million.
TUI said the need for money had arisen since the mid-October deal, because Hapag-Lloyd's old lenders had seen their own balance sheets shrink.
"The financing being considered by TUI is a symptom of the credit crunch and that many banks aren't [lending] or can't lend as they once did," a source told the FT.
Royal Bank of Scotland, one of six banks that agreed to lend $750 million to buy 29 containerships then owned by TUI but operated by Hapag-Lloyd, was badly burnt in the financial crisis and has since come under control of the UK government.
Its British government controllers are anxious to curb the bank's foreign lending, with RBS exposure to the ship deal said to be about EUR100 million.