TUI Group has confirmed the completion of the disposal of Hotelbeds Group, announced in April 2016, for a total cash consideration of €1.19 billion.

The organisation sold the unit to the British investor Cinven Capital Management and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.

All regulatory approvals required have been granted by the relevant authorities.

This marks the completion of the transaction.

The group also announced a further expansion of its hotel portfolio with a new TUI Blue Hotel in Croatia. 

Fritz Joussen, chief executive, TUI Group, said: “With the successful completion of the disposal, we are consistently continuing our strategy.

“TUI covers the whole tourism value chain, however, our investments focus on our own products that differentiate us from our competition.

“These are primarily hotel and cruise businesses.

“We will use the proceeds to continue our growth roadmap for our hotel and cruise portfolio and further strengthen our balance sheet.”

Following the merger between TUI AG and TUI Travel PLC in December 2014, Joussen had launched a clear strategy focussed on delivering the group’s alignment as an integrated tourism group and expansion of the its own hotel and cruise portfolio.

TUI will provide a strategy update, including details regarding the reinvestment of proceeds from the disposal, at the presentation of its results for financial year 2015/16 in December.