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Thomas Cook is set to return to European ownership after its Chinese owners agreed to sell the British tour operator to a Polish rival five years after it collapsed.
Chinese conglomerate Fosun will sell Thomas Cook, excluding its China operations, to eSky, a Poland-based company that provides booking systems and search engines for airlines, for a total consideration of up to £30 million, Fosun said on Thursday.
Founded in 1841, Thomas Cook went bankrupt in 2019. after failing to negotiate a £1.1bn bailout deal that caused worldwide travel chaos, forcing the UK government to repatriate 150,000 stranded customers. Fosun acquired Thomas Cook later that year when paid 11 million pounds for the company’s brand and intellectual property.
Fosun said in a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange that “the online travel agency business in the UK… is not consistent with the group’s core competencies and strategic focus”.
With investment from Fosun, Thomas Cook’s largest shareholder before its collapse, the British travel company was relaunched as an online-only travel brand in 2020. British rival Hays Travel has acquired around 550 high street Thomas Cook stores.
“eSky has experience in flights, while we have great experience in sourcing hotels,” Alan French, chief executive of Thomas Cook, told the Financial Times. “Bringing those together is clearly an opportunity as the package holiday business grows.” French will continue in his role.
Thomas Cook posted a pre-tax loss of £3.6m in 2023, down from a loss of £13.5m the year before, as it “shifted from a focus on growth to a focus on profitable trading”, according to a filing with Companies House in June. French said he expected to be profitable for the full year.
The eSky deal is as follows: tourism The sector remains in strong demand post-pandemic, even as inflation and the cost of living crisis have hit consumer discretionary spending.
Fosun was among the Chinese conglomerates that aggressively expanded overseas before the pandemic, acquiring assets such as French resort group Club Med and English Premier League football club Wolverhampton Wanderers.
However, the group has been selling non-strategic and non-core assets since 2022 as high interest rates have strained its highly leveraged structure. The company plans to reduce interest-bearing debt by about 60 billion yuan ($8 billion) to regain its investment grade credit rating.
“It is essential to maintain strong cash flow and stable development for a stable future,” Chairman Guo Guangchang said at an earnings briefing last month. “Surviving today is the key to seizing tomorrow’s opportunities. Therefore, we are focusing on reducing heavy assets.”
Founded in 2004, eSky aims to grow its business from an online flight aggregator to a provider of package holidays combining flights and hotels. Majority owned by MCI Capital, a private equity firm focused on Central and Eastern Europe, the company operates in more than 50 countries.
Thomas Cook said the deal would give Thomas Cook “access to eSky’s superior flight inventory and will support the company’s continued growth”.
