Evening Standard, London
July 28, 2000 --Thomas Cook, one of Britain's oldest travel companies, is set to fall entirely into US hands, leaving
its German shareholders free to take over Britain's other holiday giant, Thomson Travel Group.
Carlson Companies, the American travel and hospitality concern, is seeking to buy the 78 percent of Thomas Cook
it does not own already from German travel group Preussag and Westdeutsche Landesbank, according to the Wall Street
Journal Inter-active.
The European Commission this week gave the thumbs-up to Preussag's bid for Thomson -- provided that Preussag sells
its 50.1 percent of Thomas Cook and Westdeutsche Landesbank sells its 27.9 percent stake. The German bank has to
sell since it also owns a third of Preussag.
To gain full control of Thomas Cook, Carlson must sell Cook's airline, since companies outside the EU are not allowed
to hold majority stakes in domestic airlines.
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