Tui (TUIGn.DE) is bagging a capital sun-lounger just as the dark sets in on Europe’s holiday season. The Germany-based tour operator – the continent’s largest – announced a rights issue to raise 1.1 billion euros to pay down state loans. A second capital raise in less than a year and the offer’s meaty 35% discount to shares’ theoretical ex-rights price doesn’t appear to have put off investors, which include 32% shareholder and Russian steel tycoon Alexey Mordashov: the stock was trading broadly flat on Wednesday morning. Such optimism will warm boss Friedrich Joussen, who boasted of late summer bookings already being ahead of 2019 levels. True, next year’s 1.5 billion euros of EBITDA is projected to surpass Tui’s pre-pandemic total. But include the new money and net debt could still be 4.7 billion euros next year, according to Refinitiv data. That’s about 3 times EBITDA, compared with a multiple of less than 1 in 2019. Joussen will need holidaymakers’ wanderlust to stay strong if he is to avoid yet another capital increase. (By Christopher Thompson)