TRAVEL & TOURISM

Airtours Selling Stake to Carnival: The British tour operator said the vacation cruise giant will acquire a 29.6% stake in a deal valued at about $293 million. The stake would be just below the 30% threshold at which British takeover rules would require it to launch a full-scale public cash offer for the company. Carnival Corp., which has been trying to increase its presence in Europe for some time, agreed to buy 20 million new Airtours shares at $7.70 each and make an offer for another 20 million, either in return for Carnival shares or for $6.93 cash each. Airtours said it was happy with the extent of Miami-based Carnival’s participation and confident that the purchase is not the precursor to a takeover.