Tui board recommends delisting from London Stock Exchange

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Tui, Europe’s largest tour operator, has dealt a further blow to London’s shrinking equity market after recommending to shareholders that it cancel its UK listing next month.

The Anglo-German travel group — which reported revenues of €20.7bn in 2023, and is listed in both London and Frankfurt with a valuation of €3.5bn — said on Thursday that following investor pressure, it had decided its British listing was no longer “advantageous”.

Less than a quarter of trading in the company’s shares is now conducted in London, said Tui’s board in a statement, citing a “significant” decrease in liquidity on UK equity markets over recent years.

The Hanover-headquartered company has had a dual listing since 2014, and still counts British tourists as its single biggest group of customers.

“We have followed the suggestions of our shareholders and have held extensive discussions. Terminating the listing in London would offer clear advantages for investors and the company,” said chief financial officer Mathias Kiep.

During the past few months, the London Stock Exchange has faced a steady stream of companies ditching their existing listings or choosing to go public on rival exchanges; losses that have irked Conservative MPs keen to stress London’s financial attractiveness following Brexit.

In November, the chief executive of commodity group Glencore said the company would list its planned coal mining spin-off in New York, even though natural resources companies have traditionally been one of London’s strengths.

UK pollster YouGov is also considering abandoning its London listing while commodity broker Marex in December filed to list in the US. Irish building materials group CRH and packaging company Smurfit Kappa are among the companies that last year dropped their London listings.

Tui said it would formally propose the delisting at its annual meeting on February 13. The resolution will require the support of 75 per cent of shareholders to pass.

If successful, the delisting from London would occur in June, the company added.

The move would allow for “[the] simplification of structures, improvement in liquidity and indexation as well as benefits for the EU ownership of our airlines,” said Kiep. Airlines need to be owned and controlled by EU entities to benefit from being part of the single market for aviation.

“On this basis and after intensive analysis, we recommend that our shareholders vote in favour of the proposed resolution at the upcoming AGM.”

Tui’s largest single shareholder, with an almost 11 per cent stake, is Alexei Mordashov, a Russian steel magnate. Mordashov was hit by EU and UK sanctions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and has no access to his investment, so would not be able to participate in any shareholder vote.

Tui expects 2024 to be a year of strong growth. Presenting its 2023 results last month, the company said it expects revenues to increase 10 per cent in the forthcoming year, with consumer demand for travel proving resilient despite the cost of living crisis and rising cost of credit.