TUI shares take off ahead of year end

Shares in FTSE 100 consumer travel company TUI (LON:TUI) were lifted 4.39% to 941p (as 12:15 BST) as it provided a pre-close update for the year ending 30th September. Management said that demand in Spain was normalising, both in terms of pricing and occupancy, but this was balanced by growth in Turkey. They added that the weaker demand environment seen earlier in the year was still evident, but one third of packages for the winter season have been sold in line with the prior year.

CEO Friedrich Joussen commented: “On Monday 23 September 2019, our competitor Thomas Cook UK Plc and associated UK entities entered into compulsory liquidation. TUI is preparing measures to support. Where TUI customers are booked on Thomas Cook Airlines flights and these are no longer operated, replacement flights will be offered. We are currently assessing the short term impact of Thomas Cook’s insolvency under the current circumstances, on the final week of our FY19 financial result.

“Our vertically integrated business model proves to be resilient, even in this challenging market environment. Our Holiday Experiences business continues to deliver strong results. Meanwhile, our Markets & Airlines business faces a number of ongoing external challenges such as the grounding of the 737 MAX aircraft, airline overcapacities and continued Brexit uncertainty. The Summer 2019 season is however closing out in line with expectations and we therefore reiterate FY19 underlying EBITA guidance stated in our ad hoc announcement of March 2019 of approximately up to minus 26% compared with underlying EBITA rebased in FY18 of EUR1,177m.1

“These external challenges will continue in FY20 – therefore, we will focus on becoming more cost competitive in our Markets & Airlines business to protect and extend our market share where possible. Going forward, our two key digital strategic initiatives will deliver greater customer reach in new markets complementary to our existing markets, through our new GDN-OTA2 platform as well in our Destination Experiences markets through our Musement platform, driving further demand to our own Holiday Experiences businesses. TUI is well-positioned to become an integrated digital tourism platform business“.