European Union approves TUI's proposed acquisition of CP Ships
13 10월 2005 - 4:44AM
PR Newswire (US)
China review period expires HANOVER, Germany and GATWICK, UK, Oct.
12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- TUI AG and CP Ships Limited jointly
announced today that TUI's proposed acquisition of CP Ships has
been cleared by the European Union and that the regulatory review
period in China has expired. Regulatory approvals under competition
legislation in certain other countries in which the companies carry
on business are pending. The EU approval granted by the European
Commission's competition directorate, is contingent upon the
withdrawal by TUI's Hapag-Lloyd from two agreements, the
Transatlantic Conference Agreement (TACA) and the US South Europe
Conference (USSEC). TUI intends to combine Hapag-Lloyd and CP Ships
to create the world's fifth-largest container shipping company. TUI
anticipates completion of its offer in October, 2005. Information
on CP Ships One of the world's leading container shipping
companies, CP Ships provides international container transportation
services in four key regional markets: TransAtlantic, Australasia,
Latin America and Asia. Within these markets CP Ships operates 38
services in 22 trade lanes. At 30th June 2005, CP Ships' vessel
fleet was 82 ships and its container fleet 441,000 TEU. Volume in
2004 was 2.3 million TEU. CP Ships also owns Montreal Gateway
Terminals, which operates one of the largest marine container
terminal facilities in Canada. CP Ships is listed on the Toronto
and New York stock exchanges under the symbol TEU and also in the
S&P/TSX 60 Index of top Canadian publicly listed companies. For
further information, visit the website at http://www.cpships.com/.
Information on TUI TUI is the European market leader in tourism
and, through its wholly owned subsidiary, Hapag-Lloyd, is a leading
player in the global market for container shipping. The tour
operators of TUI trade in 17 European countries. In 2004, the Group
had around 18 million customers. TUI now includes about 3,290
travel agencies, 120 aircraft, 42 incoming agencies and 285 hotels
with approximately 163,000 beds in 28 countries. TUI provides its
customers with holidays from a single source - from booking in a
travel agency, flights, accommodation in the Group's own hotels and
customer-care provided by the Group's own incoming agencies. This
vertical integration strategy covers the whole value chain in the
source markets (sales markets) and the destinations (holiday areas)
and provides its customers with high standards of quality from
start to finish. Through its wholly owned subsidiary Hapag-Lloyd,
TUI operates one of the world's leading container shipping
companies and also operates a fleet of four cruise liners. The
container shipping operation, with 57 container ships, specialises
in complex, wide-ranging logistics services. The container ships
primarily supply the main routes between Europe and Asia, Europe
and North America and North America and Asia. Hapag-Lloyd's
container shipping operation transported 2.4 million TEU worldwide
in the 2004 financial year. The cruise ship division is the leading
"premium and luxury cruise" tour operator in German-speaking
countries. The cruise liners including the 5-star-plus "MS Europa"
are at home on all the world's oceans. For further information,
visit the websites at http://www.tui.com/ /
http://www.hapag-lloyd.com/. Forward looking information This press
release contains certain forward-looking information and statements
within the meaning of applicable securities laws relating, but not
limited, to operations, anticipated or prospective financial
performance, results of operations, business prospects and
strategies of TUI and CP Ships. Forward-looking information
typically contains statements with words such as "consider",
"anticipate", "believe", "expect", "plan", "intend", "likely" or
similar words suggesting future outcomes or statements regarding an
outlook on future changes in volumes, freight rates, costs,
achievable cost savings, the estimated amounts and timing of
capital expenditures, anticipated future debt levels and incentive
fees or revenue, or other expectations, beliefs, plans, objectives,
assumptions, intentions or statements about future events or
performance. These statements are subject to known and unknown
risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual
results to differ materially from those suggested by the
forward-looking statements. Although each of TUI and CP Ships
believes it has a reasonable basis for making the forecasts or
projections included herein, you are cautioned not to place undue
reliance on such forward-looking information. By its nature, the
forward-looking information involves numerous assumptions, inherent
risks and uncertainties, both general and specific that contributes
to the possibility that the predictions, forecasts and other
forward-looking statements will not occur. These factors include,
but are not limited to, changes in business strategies; general
global, political and economic and business conditions, including
the length and severity of any economic slowdown in the countries
and regions where the companies operate, including seasonality,
particularly in the United States, Canada, Latin America,
Australasia, Asia and Europe; the effects of competition and
pricing pressures; changes in freight rates; changes in operational
costs; industry over-capacity; changes in demand for container
shipping; congestion; availability and cost of chartered ships;
changes in laws and regulations, including tax, environmental,
employment, competition, anti-terrorism and trade laws;
difficulties in achieving cost savings; currency exposures and
exchange rate fluctuations, fuel price and interest rate
fluctuations; changes in access to capital markets and other
sources of financing; various events which could disrupt
operations, including war, acts of terrorism, severe weather
conditions and external labour unrest, all of which may be beyond
TUI or CP Ship's insurance coverage's; compliance with security
measures by governmental and industry trade practice groups, the
outcome of civil litigation related to CP Ship's restatement of
financial results and the impact of any resulting legal judgments,
settlements and expenses, and the companies' anticipation of and
success in managing the risks associated with the foregoing. The
above list of important factors affecting forward-looking
information is not exhaustive, and reference should be had to the
other risks discussed in filings with securities regulators. TUI
and CP Ships undertake no obligation, except as required by law, to
update publicly or otherwise revise any forward- looking
information, whether as a result of new information, future events
or otherwise, or the above list of factors affecting this
information. DATASOURCE: CP Ships CONTACT: Media Contacts: Stefanie
Rother, TUI AG, t: +49 511 566 1432, ; Klaus Heims, Hapag-Lloyd AG,
t: +49 40 3001 2263, ; Ian Blair, Hill & Knowlton
(TUI/Hapag-Lloyd), t: (416) 413-4694, m: (416) 522-0717, ;
Elizabeth Canna, CP Ships, t: +44 (0)1293 861 921, m: +41 (0)79 691
3764, ; Investor Relations Contacts: Bjorn Beroleit, TUI AG, t: +49
511 566 1310, ; Jeremy Lee, CP Ships, t: (514) 934-5254, m: (514)
502-3112,
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