Holiday group TUI’s CEO to step down

(Reuters) -TUI said on Friday Friedrich Joussen was stepping down as chief executive officer at the end of September after helming the world’s largest holiday group for nearly a decade.

The company named finance chief Sebastian Ebel as Joussen’s successor and said it would propose naming the incoming CEO as chairman of the board.

“When the pandemic in spring 2020 turned us into a company without a business virtually overnight, all our attention was focused on one goal: rescuing TUI,” Joussen said.

“Now that the existential crisis has been mastered, the time is right for a change at the top of TUI.”

Mathias Kiep will take over the role of chief financial officer from Ebel in October, TUI said.

TUI last month said it expects to become profitable again in 2022 as countries lift restrictions and people book package tours, eager to pay more for higher hotel grades or extra services on their long-awaited vacations.

Germany had given TUI aid of 4.3 billion euros ($4.52 billion).

“Ebel inherits a company which has weathered the worst of the pandemic with bookings recovering, but still has some tough decisions ahead to counter the travel delays in Europe at the moment and also fully fix the balance sheet long-term,” Bernstein analysts wrote in a note.

($1 = 0.9503 euros)

(Reporting by Yadarisa Shabong in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D’Silva)