Travel giant Tui Group has completed a capital increase that has raised about €1.1 billion from a rights issue of new shares.
Europe’s largest travel group announced the plan to bolster its balance sheet earlier this month “to maximise long-term opportunities” as travel was starting to emerge from the worst effects of the pandemic.
The capital increase leaves the company with €4.5 billion in cash and available facilities, and the net proceeds of the offering will enable it to reduce interest costs and net debt.
Tui’s share capital will be increased nominally by about €523.5 million to just under €1.623 billion.
During the subscription period, from October 8 to October 26, existing shareholders were able to exercise their subscription rights and subscribe to new shares at a ratio of 10:21 for €2.15 euros per share and 97.7% of the subscription rights were exercised.
Unifirm Limited, controlled by the Mordashov family, the largest shareholder of Tui, exercised its subscription rights in full.
Unifirm also acquired additional shares in the market and part of the unsubscribed shares and increased its stake in TUI from 32% to 33%.