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Chinese leisure giant Fosun puts Thomas Cook up for sale

By Nagasunder in UK Business News, posted March 5, 2023

Three years after rescuing the name from collapse, Thomas Cook's Chinese owner is planning an outright sale of the British holiday brand.

According to Sky News, Fosun Tourism Group is in preliminary talks with a number of potential buyers of the online travel agency (OTA).

Fosun, which is part of the same conglomerate that owns Wolverhampton Wanderers FC, a Premier League club, is also considering selling a minority stake in Thomas Cook in order to raise capital from an outside investor.

The news that Fosun is considering selling its entire stake in Thomas Cook comes four months after the company told Sky News that such a move was not being considered.

The potential sale of the 180-year-old brand, arguably the best-known tourism name in Britain for decades, comes as Fosun considers selling the Club Med luxury resort chain.

The Chinese conglomerate has been working with Rothschild bankers on the Club Med process for months as it seeks to reduce its debt pile.

Fosun purchased the Thomas Cook brand and other intellectual property assets from the ashes of its bankrupt parent company, for just £11 million.

The then-London-listed company had been fighting for survival for months, trying to raise funds to secure its future, but it eventually went bankrupt in September 2019.

Hays Travel, an independently owned group, purchased a large portion of its high street operations.

In its full-year trading update, Fosun Tourism Group stated that bookings at Thomas Cook's UK operations increased 340 percent year on year, equating to 80,000 holidays.

A company spokesman said: "We have been conducting a structured review of our portfolio companies and how we can best support their future growth since last year,".

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"Where it makes strategic sense to collaborate with potential partners to achieve Thomas Cook's commercial ambitions, we will seriously consider doing so."

Source: Sky News

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