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Post by artisans on Jun 4, 2009 17:41:08 GMT 2
Lisydaly has mentioned that the German parent company that owns Thomas Cook is in deep financial difficulties. We have been watching this story now for seven days and, at the moment, we are confident that the Thomas Cook operation and its commitment to customers is in safe hands. There is no need to assume that this is another XL situation.
Parent company Arcandor, who own 52% of Cook, has been in trouble since before the recession and has asked the German government to bail it out. Speaking to a friend recently, it seems they are in a long queue. It was announced this morning that Arcandor do qualify for a 60 million euro bail-out, but whether the government will be forthcoming is not clear.
Thomas Cook is profitable and it is unlikely, even if Arcandor fail, that they will close. There has been interest in Thomas Cook from Kuoni and another holiday company called Rewe, the third largest in Germany.
A Cook spokesman said the ongoing financial issues of its parent were not having any operational impact on the UK plc. He explained that they are ring fenced and operate totally independently and thus there has been no impact of Arcandor’s financial issues.
The deadline to resolve the situation is next Friday.
Steve
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Post by artisans on Jun 4, 2009 19:41:44 GMT 2
At the moment, there is no indication that Thomas Cook will be following in XLs footsteps - this is the parent company. Thomas Cook is very profitable (and we all know why!) and there is no reason, based on current reports, to worry if you have a holiday booked with Thomas Cook or any of its other holiday branches.
Julie
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Post by tattooedjanet on Jun 9, 2009 16:23:12 GMT 2
I've just seen on the news that Arcandor have now filed for bankruptcy. Figers crossed though - apparently Thomas Cook is financially ring fenced from the parent company & rumour has it that there are several other companies already showing an interest in buying the Thomas Cook business as a whole.
Janet.
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lindylou
Roda Novice
In my happiest place - Roda
Posts: 7
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Post by lindylou on Jun 10, 2009 20:57:13 GMT 2
We have also got our flights booked with TC, and have not heard anything from travel agent and been following this story on the news. When Managing Director was interview it appears that we do not have any reason to be concerned. So we are kind of assuming that all will be ok... I hope as I can't wait to see my sis again... Only 7 weeks and 5 days Julie!!
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Post by artisans on Jun 20, 2009 9:31:40 GMT 2
Thomas Cook owner Arcandor now has three months to present a plan for restructuring and it shows every sign of intending to emerge from insolvency and hang on to its 52.8% stake in Thomas Cook.
Evidently Thomas Cook is worth in excess of £1 billion making a management buyout unlikely as, under UK takeover rules, any bidder would have to find something like £2.6 billion to buy the whole of the company.
To complicate matters, part of Thomas Cook has been pledged by Arcandor as collateral to a group of banks including RBS. Nothing is likely to be announced for several weeks.
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