Carnival and TUI stop idea of joint venture in Germany
JUST as Carnival Corporation confirmed its Spanish joint venture, the cruise giant revealed that its proposed German venture with TUI is dead. The two companies said today that they will withdraw antitrust filings with the German and Austrian Federal Cartel agencies. Carnival blamed "an extremely difficult regulatory environment in Germany, which makes it impossible to close the proposed joint venture this fiscal year". Carnival explained that "failure to do so would create adverse tax consequences for the company that would impact the economics of the transaction". Carnival and TUI conceded that they would not proceed, but "will continue to explore other opportunities". Carnival and TUI first revealed plans for their German venture in December 2006, which would encompass a new premium brand, TUI Cruises, and the existing 'club ship' AIDA brand. The TUI Cruises venture had initially planned to order a 3,000-passenger newbuild for delivery in spring 2010, but as the regulatory process dragged on, that schedule was pushed back and plans were revised to debut the brand using existing Carnival tonnage. The failure in Germany is in stark contrast to Carnival's success in Spain, where the go-ahead for the new Iberocroceros venture was confirmed today at the same time as the German setback.