Thomas Cook warns again on profit as Brexit delay drags out pain
Shares fell as much as 23% in early deals to their lowest level since November 2012, taking the value of the company below £300m
London — British travel group Thomas Cook issued its third profit warning in less than a year on Thursday, sending shares tumbling to a six-and-a-half year low as it said discounting and higher fuel and hotel costs would hurt it during the peak summer season. Thomas Cook said it had received multiple bids for its airline unit, but this was overshadowed by what CEO Peter Fankhauser called a “difficult trading environment” despite a delay to Britain’s exit from the EU. “With a lot of holidays left to sell across the market, there are high levels of discounting at this early stage of the season … This is putting further pressure on margins,” Fankhauser told reporters, adding that a delay to Brexit from March 29 until October had brought no respite. “There’s no doubt that we had a decline in consumer confidence during this whole Brexit phase in the run-up to March, but we have seen no material change to booking patterns in recent weeks since the delay to Brexit was announced,” he add...
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