TUI To Sell Specialist Unit As Revenue Up 2.7%

The owner of Thomson and First Choice is to sell its specialist group of adventure and education holiday brands to focus on its main revenue-generating tourism business.

Last month, TUI (LSE: 0NLA.L - news) sold its Hotelbeds unit to private equity group Cinven and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board in a deal worth over £9m.

Announcing its half-year results today, it said it would focus on its main tourism business and confirmed it was on track to deliver underlying earnings growth of at least 10%.

Chief Executive of TUI Group Friedrick Joussen said: "Our intentions to dispose Specialist Group enables us to focus fully on our growth strategy and to strengthen our balance sheet."

The travel operator’s pre-tax loss narrowed to £251m in the six months to 31 March, from £257m during the same period last year.

Revenue increased 2.7% to £5.3bn in the first half of the 2015/2016 financial year.

Shares (Berlin: DI6.BE - news) in the firm were down 2.3% in early morning trading.

TUI acknowledged results had been affected by recent terror attacks, with demand falling for Egypt and Turkey holidays, but said bookings for summer bookings were up 1%.

"Popularity of our hotels outside Turkey continues to drive improvement in hotels and resorts occupancy and performance this summer, when we will be opening new hotels in the Caribbean, Sri Lanka and Greece," said a statement.

TUI's results come a day after easyJet slipped into a half-year loss and said it had also been impacted by the attacks in Egypt, Paris and Brussels.