TUI AG shares rise as unit Hapag signs deal with Chile's Vapores

FRANKFURT, Jan 23 (Reuters) - Shares in German travel and tourism group TUI AG (Xetra: TUI1.DE - news) rose 4 percent on Thursday, as prospects rose that it would be able to exit its 22 percent stake in shipper Hapag-Lloyd.

TUI has long wanted to move out of container shipping to focus solely on its tourism operations, as part of which it controls Europe's largest tour operator TUI Travel (LSE: TT.L - news) .

Chilean shipper Vapores said late Wednesday it had agreed to a business tie-up with Hapag-Lloyd that would create the world's fourth largest container-shipping company.

"A business combination of Hapag-Lloyd and CSAV might offer TUI an opportunity to achieve a good price for its stake, if not in the short term, so maybe in the midterm in case the shipping industry continues its recovery," Equinet analyst Jochen Rothenbacher said in a note.

TUI confirmed previous statements that it saw the potential tie-up between Vapores and Hapag-Lloyd as positive.

"Consolidation in the sector is needed," a spokeswoman said.

Under the plan, Vapores would take a 30 percent stake in Hapag-Lloyd and sign a controlling agreement with Hapag's other two key shareholders - the town of Hamburg and businessman Klaus Michael Kuehne.

"Our interest is still in an exit," a spokeswoman for TUI said on Thursday, saying that the group still wanted to pursue the option of an initial public offering for its stake to create value for shareholders.