British travel group Thomas Cook has issued its third profit warning in less than a year, sending shares tumbling to a 6-1/2 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 chief executive Peter Fankhauser called a "difficult trading environment" despite a delay to Britain's exit from the European Union.
"We have seen no tangible change to booking patterns in recent weeks since the announcement of a delay to Brexit," Thomas Cook said.
Fankhauser bemoaned the impact of weak consumer confidence.
"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.
Thomas Cook warned that second-half underlying earnings before interest and tax would be below the same period last year and added that it had agreed a £300 million bank facility to provide more liquidity for the 2019/20 winter season.
The oldest travel company in the world stumbled badly last year when a heatwave in northern Europe deterred holiday makers from booking lucrative last minute deals, leading to two major profit warnings and talk of a need to raise funds.
Sale Plans And Statistics
Thomas Cook wants to sell its airline business, which includes German holiday carrier Condor, to cut debt and allow it to invest in its core holiday operations.
Net debt rose to £1.25 billion by the end of March from £886 million a year earlier.
The company said it made an underlying loss before interest and tax of £245 million in the six months to March 31, compared with a loss of £65 million in the same period a year earlier.
Thomas Cook also took an impairment charge of £1.1 billion relating to a 2007 merger with British package-holiday company MyTravel.
Fankhauser said that British holidaymakers had delayed booking in the run-up to March 29, when Britain had been due to leave the European Union, but there had not been a pick-up since that date was pushed back to October 31.
Adding to pressure on the company, short-selling of its shares has surged recently. The volume of shares on loan has doubled since May 5, and is about nine times its level on January 1. Some 12.1% of shares outstanding are on loan.
Thomas Cook said it had received multiple bids for all and part of a business which consists of Condor, as well as British, Scandinavian and Spanish divisions.
Lufthansa has said it wants to buy Condor with an option to acquire the remaining airlines, while Virgin Atlantic is also reportedly interested in part of the business.
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