An official at Onyx Investments Ltd, which is owned by the Oman Investment Fund, said Onyx had reached an agreement in principle to buy a stake in Hapag-Lloyd, which TUI has long wanted to spin off from its core travel and tourism business, but negotiations about the price were continuing.
The official, who declined to be named, had said that Onyx had bought a 15 percent stake, which then prompted TUI's response.
"TUI is currently in talks with potential investors over the sale of shares in Hapag-Lloyd," the travel group said, adding that divestment via an initial public offering was still a possibility.
TUI last month put on ice any decision on a share listing for Hapag-Lloyd after the earthquake in Japan and the political unrest in the Middle East and North Africa upset markets.
Sources close to TUI said on Tuesday that it was in talks with several prospective investors, including Oman and China's fourth-largest airline group HNA.
Asked about the possible purchase, a spokesman for the Oman Investment Fund said the company did not comment on speculation.
TUI shares were 3 percent higher at 8.78 euros at 1535 GMT.
Overseas Buys
Among Oman Investment Fund's other overseas acquisitions is a 12.6 percent stake in Hanoi-based Petrovietnam Insurance , bought for $42.8 million in 2010.
TUI said earlier this month it had agreed to sell an 11.3 percent stake in Hapag-Lloyd to co-owner the Albert Ballin consortium in a 315 million-euro ($447 million) deal prior to any share flotation.
Based on this deal, which would cut its stake in Hapag-Lloyd to 38.4 percent, a 15 percent stake would be valued at 417 million euros and the entire business at 2.78 billion euros.
Media reports have valued Hapag-Lloyd at between 3 billion and 3.5 billion euros.
The Albert Ballin investor group including Klaus-Michael Kuehne, the majority owner of logistics group Kuehne & Nagel , currently owns 50.2 percent of Hapag-Lloyd.
TUI, which started life as a mining and steel company in 1924, aims to sell about half its stake in Hapag-Lloyd.
TUI is expected by analysts to use the proceeds from any IPO or sale to buy back the shares it does not own in London-listed subsidiary TUI Travel , although it has never confirmed any such plans.
TUI had originally tried to sell a majority stake in Hapag-Lloyd in 2008 but the global financial crisis derailed the deal, leaving TUI with a larger stake than it originally intended.
The owners of Hapag-Lloyd in December picked Credit Suisse , Goldman Sachs and Greenhill to start preparations for a listing. (Reuters)
