TUI AG (TUI.L)
| Previous close | 288.90 |
| Open | 284.00 |
| Bid | 306.20 x 0 |
| Ask | 306.60 x 0 |
| Day's range | 277.77 - 307.85 |
| 52-week range | 2.77 - 1,090.00 |
| Volume | 2,079,483 |
| Avg. volume | 2,601,098 |
| Market cap | 1.809B |
| Beta (5Y monthly) | 1.70 |
| PE ratio (TTM) | 2.11 |
| EPS (TTM) | 145.10 |
| Earnings date | N/A |
| Forward dividend & yield | 0.45 (16.85%) |
| Ex-dividend date | 12 Feb 2020 |
| 1y target est | 15.65 |
- Bloomberg
Airlines Will Face a Reckoning Like the Banks Did
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- When U.K. travel brand Thomas Cook relaunched as an online travel agent last month, it needed a way to convince customers that it’s become a more reliable custodian of their money since its 2019 bankruptcy and that they’ve nothing to fear from booking a holiday during a pandemic.Its solution was to promise that most of the cash customers hand over long before they go on holiday will now be held in a ring-fenced trust account until they return.(1)For anyone who’s struggled this year to get a refund from an airline, cruise ship operator or travel agent, this will sound appealing. The model is bound to become much more common as regulators begin to understand the benefits. It’s about time.When British tour operators renew their licenses to operate in the coming weeks, some may be asked to keep customer prepayments in a segregated account, the Telegraph newspaper reported recently. Currently, travel companies and airlines are often free to spend the prepayments on whatever they like, and long before the trip happens.Because of the immediate need to ensure the travel industry remains solvent, a swift regulatory crackdown on that business model would be counterproductive right now. The bigger current worry is that travel groups barely have any new bookings. German airline Lufthansa AG plans to offer only up to 25% of last year’s flight capacity during the fourth quarter.However, after the financial crisis U.K. banks were forced to separate their core retail banking services from riskier investment banking. One day, there needs to be a similar reckoning about how travel groups protect customer cash.From the travel companies’ perspective getting customers to stump up money months before they travel is great — it’s like getting a big interest-free loan. Lufthansa, cruise operator Carnival Corp. and tour company TUI AG all held several billion dollars of customer cash, according to their most recent full financial results.When Covid-19 shut down global travel, consumers realized they were getting a raw deal. Many endured a Kafkaesque battle with company bureaucracies to get their money back and they often had to make do with vouchers.Some travel agents are better at protecting their customers’ cash, and they’re calling loudest for change. “It’s scandalous that the money innocently paid for travel arrangements sometime in the future, is not required to be set aside in trust and solely spent delivering the contract,” Trailfinders says. It’s branded the current system a “protection racket.” In theory, customer prepayments are safe, even without ring-fencing. If you book a flight with a credit card it’s usually possible to get a refund if the travel company goes bust. But not everyone books this way and you’re just loading the risk onto the credit companies. That’s why the latter hold back customer money from travel companies they deem to be a financial worry. Brits who book a flight-inclusive holiday with so-called ATOL protection can also get a refund from the Air Travel Trust Fund if their travel company collapses. However, the fund was drained of cash after Thomas Cook’s demise. Setting up a trust account doesn’t guarantee that refunds would be processed quickly in the event of mass travel cancellations like those seen this year. But by preventing companies from spending the cash until customers have travelled, the money should at least be safe.(3) Travel groups are beginning to see the benefits of ring-fenced accounts, too. Saga Plc expects its decision to set up a trust account will give it a marketing advantage with its over-50s holiday clientele.Segregating customer prepayments would, however, increase a travel company’s cash requirements, which most of them can ill afford right now. For example, UBS analyst Cristian Nedelcu estimates that as much as 250 million euros ($296 million) of Tui’s cash could become “restricted” if regulators toughened up on ring-fencing. Tui had almost 6 billion euros of net debt, including lease liabilities, at the end of June and has twice had to turn to the German government for help this year.Tui’s chief executive officer, Fritz Joussen, said in May that ring-fencing customer deposits “would more or less destroy the industry.” The cash-flow impact could ripple through the travel sector, depriving hotels and other struggling suppliers of money.There’s little sign yet that the U.K. or other governments will force airlines to implement trust accounts, as some travel agents are demanding, and perhaps that’s no surprise given aviation’s precarious financial condition and the need to protect jobs.“While I think there likely would be public support for ring-fencing customer funds with airlines, too, at least in the current situation there is a risk that governments may end up footing the bill for large legacy carriers, so you can see that it might not be their top priority,” says Daniel Roeska, an analyst at Bernstein Research.Once there’s a vaccine and we’re all flying again, though, we shouldn’t forget the cavalier regard some airlines had for customer money. Better protecting that cash is the least the companies could do.(1) Thomas Cook is still be able to transfer a portion of the package holiday cash it receives to theairline, to cover the cost of the flight ticket.(2) Some trust accounts are able to use a portion of customer booking money to pay suppliers.This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Chris Bryant is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering industrial companies. He previously worked for the Financial Times.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinionSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
- EQS Group
TUI AG: Directorate Change
TUI AG (TUI) 19-Oct-2020 / 17:28 CET/CEST Dissemination of a Regulatory Announcement, transmitted by EQS Group. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. According to LR 9.6.11 and LR 9.6.13 TUI AG (the "Company") announces the following director changes as of 16 October 2020: 1. Ms Tanja Viehl has been appointed as a new member (employee representative) of the Company's Supervisory Board. 2. Mr Mark Muratovic has been appointed as a new member (employee representative) of the Company's Supervisory Board. 3. Mr Dr Dierk Hirschel will resign as a member (employee representative) of the Company's Supervisory Board. 4. Mr Michael Pönipp will resign as a member (employee representative) of the Company's Supervisory Board. No further details remain to be disclosed as required under LR 9.6.13.All these changes will become effective at the end of the 2021 Annual General Meeting, which is expected to take place on 9 February 2021. * * * ISIN: DE000TUAG000 Category Code: BOA TIDM: TUI LEI Code: 529900SL2WSPV293B552 OAM Categories: 3.1. Additional regulated information required to be disclosed under the laws of a Member State Sequence No.: 86179 EQS News ID: 1141701 End of Announcement EQS News Service
- Bloomberg
Distressed Debt Funds Target Companies Facing Loss of Covid Aid
(Bloomberg) -- Europe’s distressed debt funds are intensifying the search for opportunities among the region’s highly-indebted companies as governments begin tapering support offered during the peak of the coronavirus pandemic.Funds are monitoring the debt of companies including cinema operator Cineworld Group Plc, Spanish ferry company Naviera Armas and German holiday giant TUI AG, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified. They anticipate that the end of state assistance, combined with virus-related restrictions on trade, could intensify these companies’ woes.Debt classified as distressed has slumped to 4 billion euros ($4.7 billion), down from about 19 billion euros at the peak of the crisis in March, Bloomberg Barclays index data show, partly due to almost 41 billion euros in government-backed loans. But the dry spell for distressed debt funds that raised huge cash piles during the pandemic now looks set to end.U.K. government support for furloughed employees will drop sharply from Oct. 31, while borrowers in both the U.K. and Germany face a tightening of insolvency rules this month.“The substantial financial support measures that have done much to shore up the markets are already starting to taper off,” said Duncan Priston, the London-based co-head of European distressed credit at HIG Bayside Capital.Read more: Germany Faces Wave of Insolvencies as Filings Waiver EndsPricewaterhouseCoopers expects debt restructurings and insolvencies to start increasing globally in the final quarter of this year or first quarter of next as support measures fall away, according to a recent report. Companies in hospitality, leisure, travel, tourism and retail will be particularly hard hit, the firm said.“The immediate priorities will include repairing the balance sheet and dealing with the debts accumulated during lockdown,” PwC wrote in the report.Cineworld, the world’s second-largest cinema chain, looks vulnerable. The company is preparing to start talks with creditors after warning it’s at risk of breaching loan covenants in December. It’s suspending operations at movie theaters after winter blockbusters, including the latest James Bond movie, were postponed.Naviera Armas bonds are quoted at around 48 cents on the euro, while TUI’s are currently quoted at around 93 cents. While Cineworld doesn’t have any bonds its euro-denominated loan fell to around 60-65 cents earlier this week.Representatives of Cineworld as well as Naviera Armas declined to comment for this article. A TUI spokesman declined to comment beyond a recent company statement saying the company is evaluating various measures to improve its balance sheet and maturity profile.Credit insurance company Euler Hermes expects its global insolvency index to hit a record high of +35% by 2021, with the hotspots including U.S., Brazil, U.K. and Spain.A premature withdrawal of supportive policy measures could increase the surge in insolvencies by 5 to 10 percentage points, according to the firm.David Grant, managing partner at law firm Locke Lord in London, said that the desire to support companies “come what may” has faded.“The word that is being used a lot is carnage,” he said.(Reworked third graph to clarify amount of distressed debt)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
