Travel giant TUI to leave London Stock Exchange in favour of German listing

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TUI said it will leave the London Stock Exchange (LSE) in June after shareholders voted in favour of the decision on Tuesday.

The company will, however, retain its listing in Frankfurt.

It comes after the company noted in December that it was considering the move because a significant portion of the trading in its stock had migrated from the UK to Germany in the past four years. 

The latest update comes after the company reported its latest quarterly profit of €6 million on high travel demand, beating analyst estimates.

Revenues also soared 15% year-on-year to €4.3bn, while winter and summer bookings were up 8% year on year.

TUI also maintained its full-year forecast of a 10% increase in revenues and a 25% uplift in profits.

In a statement, Sebastian Ebel, the chief executive of Tui, said: "People's willingness to travel is still high, despite a market environment that remains challenging. We are on track, we are gaining customers and we are growing. We are accelerating our transformation quarter by quarter."

Commenting on the results, Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, noted that TUI seems to be getting back on track, just as it primes for an exit from the London market.

"The company's first quarter numbers were better than expected as it notably swung from a big loss to a modest profit. A winning combination of higher demand and higher prices helped to deliver stellar results in what is traditionally the weakest period for the travel sector.

"It shows people are still willing to prioritise spending on holidays despite pressures on household budgets. How much further operators can push up prices is up for debate," he said.

Mould also highlighted that there's a good chance the sector may have to absorb a greater proportion of any increase in costs in the future if it doesn't want to price too big a chunk of the population out of overseas holidays.