TUI Plans IPO for Hapag-Lloyd Shipping Business

German travel conglomerate TUI said Wednesday that it plans to sell shares in its fully-owned subsidiary, the Hamburg shipping company Hapag-Lloyd AG, in a partial public offering during the second half of 2004. The Hanover-based company said it would reorganize Hapag-Lloyd as a profitable and pure shipping business with two units, Hapag-Lloyd Container Lines and Hapag-Lloyd Cruises. The company said it would divest Hapag-Lloyd of its non-maritime and would then list about one-third of the remaining company later this year. With the sale, TUI hopes to reduce its overall debt to beneath €2 billion ($2.5 billion). But the company said it still wanted to maintain its majority stake in the company.