TUI Says Its Merger Is Finally Paying Off, and Ahead of Schedule Too

TUI AG, the German tour operator that merged with TUI Travel Plc last year, said its second-quarter loss narrowed as integration of the two companies started paying off.

The underlying loss before interest, taxes and amortization was 167.8 million euros ($189 million) in the three months through March, compared with 201.6 million euros a year earlier, Hanover-based TUI said in a statement on Wednesday. Sales rose 9.2 percent to 3.41 billion euros, helped by currency effects.

Co-Chief Executive Officers Friedrich Joussen and Peter Long are adding hotels and cruise ships after the company combined with Crawley, England-based TUI Travel. Johan Lundgren, who runs the package-tour business, a main earnings contributor, will leave as the company divides his area of responsibility into three regions for faster decisions and more local management, TUI said on Tuesday.

“Integration is ahead of our plan, our growth phase is gaining momentum,” Joussen said in the statement. “Our new organization structure is in place, providing a flatter management hierarchy and a more agile and efficient structure to secure continued growth.”

The company reiterated a goal to lift underlying operating profit by 10 percent to 15 percent this year. TUI typically generates losses in the first two quarters, and makes most of its profit in its fourth quarter, which includes the European summer vacation season.

To contact the reporter on this story: Richard Weiss in Frankfurt at [email protected] To contact the editors responsible for this story: Benedikt Kammel at [email protected] Thomas Mulier, Robert Valpuesta

This article was written by Richard Weiss from Bloomberg and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network.