Tui to raise €350m from bond issue ahead of critical summer
Holiday giant Tui today announced that it would raise €350m (£303.7m) through a bond issue as the quest to bolster its coronavirus-battered finances continues.
The Anglo-German giant has already been on the receiving end of three bailouts from the German government, totalling €4.8bn.
The offer of senior unsecured bonds, due in 2028, can be increased to €400m, the firm said.
Shares in the travel group fell 7.3 per cent on the back of the announcement.
With travel restrictions still in place around the world, Tui recently announced a first quarter loss of nearly €700m.
It is banking on a strong recovery this summer to help lift it out of the turbulence of the last 12 months, but that is contingent on a successful rollout of vaccines across Europe.
And the firm’s hopes for a return to restriction-light travel were dealt a blow this morning when the UK government said that even those passengers going to low-risk countries would have to take pricey PCR tests to travel.
The travel industry has already slammed the plan, saying that it would make holidays “unviable” for many people.
PRC tests, which are markedly more accurate than cheaper lateral flow models, cost about twice as much in the UK as they do across Europe.