Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has taken a lead role on German tourism giant TUI’s $6bn (£4.2bn) sell-off of a majority stake in its Hamburg-based shipping unit to an investor group.

The deal – which has also handed roles to Latham & Watkins, Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy, White & Case and Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr – was initially valued at $3.3bn (£2.3bn), but in the wake of the credit crisis, TUI was forced to keep a 43.33% stake (rather than a 33.33% stake) in Hapag-Lloyd, the world’s fifth-largest maritime transportation company.