Biography | Friedrich Joussen — The Paternoster Square Opening That Closed Two Listings

On 17 December 2014 the merger of TUI AG and TUI Travel PLC completed.

Reuters reported the same morning from London that the combined group, to be called TUI Group, would begin trading.

TUI AG shares were admitted to the London Stock Exchange at 08:00.

They continued to trade in Frankfurt as well.

The venue was 10 Paternoster Square, the exchange's building since 2004.

Press photographs from that morning show Joussen and Peter Long, then joint chief executives, at the opening-market ceremony.

City A.M. printed the same scene from the square.

The numbers attached to the day were public.

The deal had been agreed in September 2014 at about 6.5 billion euros.

Shareholders of both companies had approved it on 28 October.

TUI Travel holders received 0.399 new TUI AG shares for each TUI Travel share.

Long was scheduled to move to the supervisory board in February 2016, leaving Joussen as sole chief executive.

The holding structure with two headquarters and two listings was the thing the ceremony was meant to end.

A visitor to Paternoster Square finds the exchange building beside St Paul's, not a trading floor open to the street.

The pin is the public facade at number 10.

The date is 17 December 2014.

Photo: London Stock Exchange, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons