major shareholder
Sanctioned oligarch transfers Tui shares to wife
Tui has so far been reluctant to make critical statements about the very rich Russian. Photo: Moritz Frankenberg/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
Does the largest single package to Tui remain “in the family” despite EU sanctions? After weeks of confusion, it is now clear: Most of the shares are moving from Alexej Mordashov to Marina Mordashova.
Even after the formal withdrawal of the EU-sanctioned oligarch Alexey Mordashov, control over a large part of the Tui voting rights remains in his immediate vicinity.
As has now become known, Marina Mordashova – according to reports and corporate information the current wife of the long-standing main shareholder – plays a key role in this. In a statement from the world’s largest travel provider to the financial markets, it is mentioned together with the Mordashov company Unifirm. Behind Unifirm is a company called Ondero, whose ownership was unknown for weeks. Now it is clear: Mordashova is a “controlling shareholder”.
Authorities check legality
According to Tui, the Federal Ministry of Economics is checking whether the complicated shifts were done correctly. There is a general suspicion that Mordashov could use the transfer to try to evade the sanctions. His Tui assets are said to be blocked because of the pending investigation under the German Foreign Trade Act, according to the group’s headquarters in Hanover. The department of Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) initially did not want to comment on this.
Tui did not know who managed almost a third of the previous voting rights. The stake allocated to Unifirm and Mordashova is now given as 29.87 percent in the most recent announcement, and February 28 appears as the date of the transaction. Exactly at the end of last month, the European Union issued punitive measures against numerous wealthy businessmen who are accused of supporting Russian President Vladimir Putin because of the Ukraine war. Mordashov is also on this sanctions list.
Veiled Maneuver
Only in the days that followed did the contours of the veiled maneuver become visible. Of the 34 percent that Mordashov had held through his company Unifirm in the EU country of Cyprus, he transferred 4.1 percent to his Russian Severgroup. He sold the remaining shares in Unifirm held through subsidiaries to Ondero Limited.
This company – which is now known to be controlled by Marina Mordashova – is based in the British Virgin Islands. Because the package stayed just below the 30 percent threshold at Tui, Ondero did not have to submit a formal takeover bid for the group under German stock corporation law and did not have to give any details of its ownership structure.
Headquarters in the Virgin Islands
As a result of the deal, which went through several corners, Unifirm’s share of the voting rights in Tui held by Ondero skyrocketed from initially zero percent to almost 30 percent. The Virgin Islands are considered a tax haven with many shell companies. Tui was subsequently informed in a corrected message that Marina Mordashova was already a shareholder of Ondero on February 28.
Pure coincidence is hard to believe in the timing and nature of these rearrangements. Despite all the merits that Mordashov has in the group, one would have liked to have been informed about the new ownership structure earlier, says an insider. Who knows who else might have gotten the voting rights? Tui was saved from the Corona crisis mainly thanks to state aid worth billions, but ex-major owner Mordashov also supported the private capital increases.
Mordashov pretends to be clueless
When he found out that he was on the sanctions list, the steel magnate initially defended himself. According to the EU, “(he) benefits from his connections to Russian decision-makers” – for example through investments in banks close to the Kremlin or media houses. Mordashov, on the other hand, told the German Press Agency through a spokeswoman: “I can’t understand how these sanctions against me are supposed to help resolve the terrible conflict in Ukraine.” He has been committed “for a very long time to the development of economic, cultural and humanitarian cooperation between many European countries”.
He also never felt a special closeness to politics. “I have absolutely nothing to do with the emergence of the current geopolitical tensions,” said Mordashov. However, he quickly left the Tui supervisory board, his luxury yacht “Lady M” was secured by Italian authorities in the port of the city of Imperia.
Tui holds back
The travel group initially held back with critical statements in the direction of the very rich Russian, the current business had nothing to do with participation issues. A little later, Tui withdrew the use of the trademark rights from the former subsidiary Tui Russia, which was also controlled by Mordashov’s family. According to various media reports, Marina Mordashova has already appeared in other changes in shares.
Whoever owns the large package at Tui AG remained in the dark for a long time. Conjectures that the shifts could be a tactic used by the oligarch to hold his shares indirectly but have them managed by confidants now seem to be substantiated. As long as tests are running, Mordashova cannot exercise the voting rights, it said in Hanover. Still confusing, however: She was not reported to Tui as a close person.