Tui makes plans to bring brands under umbrella as it puts specialist group up for sale
Tour operator Tui could re-brand some of its businesses under the Tui name.
The company is considering changing the names of well-known holiday brands Thomson and First Choice.
Yesterday the company announced it would hold onto Crystal Ski and Thomson Lakes & Mountains while offloading over 50 other brands within its Specialist Group business. The business had revenues of €850m (£671m) in the first half of this year
“Crystal Ski and Thomson Lakes & Mountains could become part of the Tui brand, and we will also look at Thomson and First Choice,” chief executive Friedrich Joussen told City PM
The figures
Earlier today Tui revealed its pre-tax loss narrowed to €319m (£251.3) in the six months ended 31 March, from €371 during the same period last year.
This came as turnover increased 2.7 per cent to €6.8bn in the first half of 2016, from €6.6bn a year earlier.
The FTSE 100-listed firms shares were down 2.3 per cent at 1,044p per share in early morning trade.
Why it's interesting
In 2014, the German company merged with London-listed Tui Travel, which it already controlled, to create the world's largest leisure tourism group.
Tui's chief executive Friedrich Joussen has since been focussing on expanding the merged group's hotels and cruise business, while scaling back its online activities.
Tui announced plans to sell its specialist group of holiday brands, to invest in future growth opportunities and strengthen its balance sheet.
"Following completion of our strategic review of the business, we see limited linkage to our content centric, vertically integrated model, and limited ability to scale with our global platforms such as the Tui brand, therefore we announce our intention to dispose the business as one transaction," it said.
Last month it agreed to sell online booking business Hotelbeds to private equity firm Cinven and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. It also sold LateRooms in October to travel firm Cox & King.
What Tui said
"We have delivered a good first half, with an improved operating result, agreement to dispose Hotelbeds and the announcement of our intention to dispose Specialist Group."
"We are focussed on delivering our TUIGroup strategy in becoming a content centric, vertically integrated tourism business and will use the proceeds of disposals to invest in future growth opportunities and to strengthen the balance sheet. Summer 2016 trading is in line with our expectations."
In short
Tui announced more disposals as the tour operator focuses on expanding the merged group's hotels and cruise business.