TUI AG decides against making TUI Travel offer

TUI Travel, Europe's largest tour operator, said last week it had received an approach regarding a potential nil-premium, all-share merger with the German company, which owns 56.4 percent of its shares.

TUI AG is focusing on tourism after selling a majority stake in container shipper Hapag-Lloyd, and has long been looking at a potential deal with TUI Travel to save on costs, sources close to the matter have told Reuters.

The German group said on Wednesday a share-based transaction was not attractive at current prices.

However, a person familiar with TUI AG's thinking said a merger was not completely off the cards for the future, though TUI AG first needed to become more efficient.

"The form it takes is of secondary importance. Basically, merging the two makes sense," the person said.

TUI Travel said the two companies had held detailed talks, but failed to reach an agreement, adding it was not in discussions with any other parties about being bought.

TUI Travel shares have surged 67 percent over the past six months, helped by problems at rival Thomas Cook, outperforming a 57 percent increase at TUI AG. The British-listed firm has a market value of 3.3 billion pounds ($5.2 billion) versus TUI AG's 1.9 billion euros ($2.5 billion).

At 1020 GMT, TUI AG shares were down 5.5 percent at 7.5

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