Thomas Cook puts India arm on sale as losses rise
THOMAS COOK said yesterday it has managed to hold onto market share with winter and summer bookings “broadly stable”, despite reporting widening losses as it struggles to rein in its financial woes.
The holiday firm, which was rescued by its banks after a cash crisis late last year, said underlying operating losses had more than doubled to £91m compared with the same quarter last year, as it continued to be impacted by political unrest in the Middle East and economic uncertainty in Europe.
But interim chief executive Sam Weihagen said the company “was fighting back” and called the one per cent rise in summer bookings “particularly encouraging”, against an industry decline of 14 per cent.
Thomas Cook has also put its Indian business up for sale as part of its attempt to pay down its £890m debt-pile. It holds a 77.1 per cent stake in the Bombay-listed business, which has a market cap of around $225m.
At its annual meeting yesterday, a smaller investor spoke out against the £1.17m pay-off awarded to former boss Manny Fontenla-Novoa last year, but overall only nine per cent voted against the remuneration report.
MEET THE ADVISERS
TRISTAN LOVEGROVE
DIRECTOR
Tristan Lovegrove, director at Credit Suisse’s investment banking division, has been a longstanding adviser to Thomas Cook, first acting for the travel operator when it merged with MyTravel in 2007. Lovegrove also worked alongside James Leigh-Pemberton on Rio Tinto’s $15bn rights issue in 2009– the fifth biggest on record at the time. The deal marked a bonanza for the bank, which was reportedly paid a 2.75 per cent fee. Last year, he advised John Wood group on the $2.8bn sale of its wells support division to General Electric.