TUI Group ready to resume travel activities / Pandemic halts strong start to financial year 2020 / Global realignment and cost reductions decided / Group transformation to be accelerated

TUI is ready for an early resumption of travel activities in Germany and Europe.

Release time : 2020-05-22 14:23:08

source : tuigroup

- an improvement of 21 percent over the same period last year. Joussen: “We were very successful economically before the crisis and will be again after the end of the crisis. We have a functioning and successful business model and over 21 million loyal customers who trust our strong brand.”

Immediately after TUI was forced to largely discontinue its business due to the worldwide travel restrictions, the Group decided to apply for a KfW bridging loan of 1.8 billion euros. This is intended to cushion the unprecedented effects of the pandemic until normal business operations can be resumed. The German government approved the loan on 27 March. On 8 April, the banks providing TUI's existing credit line of 1.75 billion euros (“Revolving Credit Facility”) also gave their approval for the contractual integration of the new credit. The swift action of TUI's Executive Board thus enabled additional liquidity to be secured at short notice. As at 10 May 2020, the Group had financial resources and available credit facilities of around 2.1 billion euros.

The loans received are to be repaid within a short period of time and the high level of debt is to be rapidly reduced again. To ensure that the strong operational performance can continue in a globally weakened market following the pandemic, the Group is now implementing a global program with extensive cost-cutting measures. This will further accelerate the transformation to a digital platform company that has already been initiated. Joussen: “TUI should emerge from the crisis stronger. But it will be a different TUI and it will find a different market environment than before the pandemic. This will require cuts: in investments, in costs, in our size and our presence around the world. We must be leaner than before, more efficient, faster and more digital. We will implement our “asset right” strategy, which we launched in 2019, even more purposefully and quickly