All regulatory approvals regarding TUI's proposed acquisition of CP Ships obtained or waived
17 Ottobre 2005 - 2:01PM
PR Newswire (US)
HANOVER, Germany and GATWICK, UK, Oct. 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ --
TUI AG and CP Ships Limited jointly announced today that all
regulatory approvals required in connection with TUI's proposed
acquisition of CP Ships have either been obtained or the
requirement to obtain such approvals prior to expiry of the offer
have been waived by TUI. Except for this waiver, the terms and
conditions previously set forth in the offer continue to be
applicable in all respects. TUI expects to complete the offer
shortly after its expiry on October 18, 2005 at 6:00 p.m. Eastern
time, provided that at least 66 2/3 per cent of the shares on a
fully diluted basis have been deposited to the offer. The offer
will not be extended if the 66 2/3 per cent deposit condition is
met. If at least 90 per cent of the outstanding shares are
deposited to the offer, TUI expects to acquire the balance of the
shares in October, 2005 pursuant to the statutory compulsory
acquisition provisions contained in the corporate legislation
governing CP Ships. If less than 90 per cent of the outstanding
shares are deposited to the offer, TUI expects to cause CP Ships to
hold a shareholder meeting to approve an amalgamation in order for
TUI to obtain 100 per cent of the shares by December 31, 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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