TUI gets indicative Hapag-Lloyd offers -sources

LONDON/FRANKFURT, July 23 (Reuters) - German tourism group TUI (TUIGn.DE) has received offers for its Hapag-Lloyd shipping business from bidders including a German consortium and Singapore's Neptune Orient Lines (NEPS.SI), sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

The Hamburg group, a consortium of investors based in the northern German city, has made an indicative offer, as has NOL, which is viewed as a top contender to buy the business, which could fetch more than 4 billion euros, said the sources.

TUI's board is set to meet later this week to discuss the proposals, and is then expected to take five or six bidders on to a second round, said one of the sources.

Activist TUI shareholder and Norwegian shipping tycoon John Fredriksen has been pushing the group to hive off Hapag-Lloyd into a separately listed company.

TUI is opposed to a spin-off that would sprout a second company on the stock market, but has bowed to shareholder pressure and agreed to look into bids for the unit.

Fredriksen has demanded that any money from the Hapag-Lloyd transaction be given to shareholders. Besides a special dividend TUI is expected to try to reduce its debt of 3.5 billion euros.

A sale of the shipping unit would bolster TUI's finances -- something a spin-off would not.

Under the NOL proposal, Singapore state-owned investment company Temasek, which owns 66 percent of NOL, would own a majority of the combined entity, said one source with knowledge of the proposal.

TUI declined to comment. (Reporting by Mathieu Robbins and Philipp Halstrick, additional reporting by Kevin Lim, editing by Will Waterman)