Tui AG to reduce stake in Hapag-Lloyd

German travel giant Tui AG's stake in container shipping company Hapag-Lloyd will drop to 13.9% following a tie-up with Chilean firm Compania SudAmericana de Vapores.

Tui, which also controls Europe's largest tour operator Tui Travel, currently owns 22% of Hapag-Lloyd.

The shareholding will drop first to 15% as part of the merger and then to 13.9% because Tui will not participate in a planned capital increase.

The deal between Vapores and Hapag-Lloyd will create the world's fourth-largest container-shipping company.

Tui, which has long planned to exit container shipping, will also get priority placement rights for its remaining stake as part of Hapag-Lloyd's planned stock market flotation in 2015, it said in an internal letter seen by Reuters.