Skift Take
This doesn't seem like an auspicious moment to build up to six new cruise ships. But, weighed down in debt, TUI claims to have investors willing to finance hotels and ships.
TUI is planning to finance new hotels and cruise ships by setting up investment funds rather than through borrowing, its strategy director was quoted by German magazine WirtschaftsWoche as saying.
The world’s largest holiday company had to be propped up with billions of euros of government aid after its travel business collapsed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
TUI has been slow to recover and because of its existing debt, which has grown during the pandemic, TUI had to look for other ways to finance new cruise ships or hotels, Peter Krueger was quoted as saying by WirtschaftsWoche on Wednesday.
“There is enough money in the market and we already have very concrete interested parties,” Krueger said, adding that the investment fund plans were fairly advanced.
“Our integration takes out most of the risk for investors,” said Krueger, who plans to present details within weeks.
WirtschaftsWoche said TUI plans to build more than 100 new hotels and up to six new cruise ships in the coming years.
(Reporting by Miranda Murray; Editing by Alexander Smith)
This article was from Reuters and was legally licensed through the Industry Dive publisher network. Please direct all licensing questions to [email protected].
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Tags: cruise, debt, hotels, tourism, tui, tui group
Photo credit: The TUI cruise ship Discovery at sea. The tour operator plans to build new ships and hotels. Source: TUI Group TUI Group