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TUIFly plane at Frankfurt Airport: hoping for rising prices

Photo: rheinmainfoto / IMAGO

The world's largest travel group TUI is once again a German company on the stock exchange. This Monday, the share, whose main listing was in London for almost ten years, returns to Frankfurt. “As of today, Frankfurt is our stock exchange again,” said CEO Sebastian Ebel. This is a milestone for the Hanover-based group. At the start of trading, Ebel wants to ring the stock exchange bell in Frankfurt am Main in the morning together with CFO Mathias Kiep.

The change in stock exchange is intended to pave the way for the travel group to enter the German index for medium-sized companies. “We remain confident and expect to be included in the MDax on June 24th,” said a company spokeswoman. The share will also be listed in London until June, after which trading will stop there.

Stock exchange move helps with EU flight rights

The group expects cost savings from concentrating on Frankfurt, and its inclusion in the MDax will increase demand for the share and thus increase prices. "With today's step, we are simplifying structures, bringing together liquidity at one trading venue and thus strengthening TUI and its global brand presence," said CFO Kiep.

The move is also intended to help the group continue to secure the requirements for aviation rights in the EU in the future. The EU requires that an airline like TUIfly that flies within the Union be majority owned and controlled by owners from the EU. It was said that this would be easier to ensure with a main listing in Frankfurt am Main.

The TUI Group moved the main listing of its shares to London in 2014 as part of the merger with the former subsidiary TUI Travel. As a result, the group was also removed from the MDax, to which it had previously belonged. But the stock from Germany didn't completely disappear after that. It continued to be traded in Hanover and also in Frankfurt am Main, but only as a secondary listing in the largely unregulated over-the-counter market. It is now returning to the regulated Prime Standard, which is a prerequisite for inclusion in the MDax.

At the end of 2023, TUI announced that it would consider withdrawing from the London Stock Exchange. Unlike a few years ago, more than three quarters of the shares are now traded in Germany again, it was said. Only 22 percent of stock trading took place in London in 2023. At the general meeting in February, shareholders gave the green light to the plans.

mik/dpa AFX