Hamburg/ Miami — Allen & Overy LLP has advi­sed listed global tourism group TUI AG (TUI) on one of the largest tran­sac­tions in the cruise business.

TUI is contri­bu­ting its luxury cruise busi­ness bund­led in Hapag-Lloyd Crui­ses to TUI Crui­ses, the Hamburg-based 50:50 joint venture between TUI and Miami-based Royal Carib­bean Crui­ses (Royal Carib­bean). The tran­sac­tion is valued at €1.2 billion (exclu­ding net debt). The tran­sac­tion is still subject to custo­mary closing condi­ti­ons and appr­ovals from the rele­vant regu­la­tory autho­ri­ties and is expec­ted to close in the summer of 2020.

With the sale, TUI and Royal Carib­bean have also agreed to further expand their part­ner­ship by using the proven joint venture struc­ture of TUI Crui­ses for the luxury and expe­di­tion cruise segment in the future. The part­ner­ship combi­nes Royal Caribbean’s ship­buil­ding, opera­tio­nal and digi­tal exper­tise with TUI’s strong brand and distri­bu­tion power.

Hapag-Lloyd Crui­ses is part of the TUI Group’s cruise busi­ness and the leading provi­der of luxury and expe­di­tion crui­ses in German-spea­king count­ries. Curr­ently, the fleet consists of two luxury ships in the five-star plus cate­gory and three expe­di­tion ships. As part of the tran­sac­tion, there are also plans to expand the luxury and expe­di­tion fleet in the coming years, as demand for luxury and expe­di­tion crui­ses is expec­ted to conti­nue to grow.

Advi­sors to TUI AG: Allen & Overy LLP
Part­ner Dr. Helge Schä­fer (photo ) and Coun­sel Dr. Jonas Witt­gens (both lead) as well as Asso­cia­tes Louisa Graub­ner and Dr. Moritz Merke­nich (all Corporate/M&A, Hamburg), Part­ner Dr. Heike Weber and Asso­ciate Sven Bisch­off (both Tax, Frank­furt) as well as Part­ner Dr. Börries Ahrens and Senior Asso­ciate Dr. Ioan­nis Thanos (both Anti­trust, Hamburg). Part­ner Stephen Mathews (Corpo­rate, London) advi­sed on issues of British capi­tal markets law.

The tran­sac­tion was hand­led in-house at TUI by Marcus Beger and Mareike Acker­mann (both TUI Group Legal/M&A).