28 May 2015 | travelweekly.co.uk business Essential news, comment and analysis TOP STORY


RESULTS ALLAY CITY FEARS


COOK’S


Peter Fankhauser’s apology has been ‘very positively received’, says a Morgan Stanley analyst


THOMAS COOK


REMAINS IN THE MEDIA GLARE FOLLOWING THE INQUEST INTO THE DEATHS OF


TWO CHILDREN, BUT ANALYSTS SEEM LESS CONCERNED. IAN TAYLOR REPORTS


City analysts appear unfazed by the public and media reaction to Thomas Cook’s handling of the deaths of children Christi and Robert Shepherd nine years ago. Media reports focused on a


fall in the company’s share price and online calls for a boycott of Thomas Cook last week. But analysts greeted chief executive Peter Fankhauser’s apology to the family and presentation of the group’s half-year results positively. Fankhauser met the parents of Christi and Robert last Thursday to apologise for the company’s failings a day after announcing


70 • travelweekly.co.uk — 28 May 2015


the results to the City and issuing a public apology. Mark Brumby, leisure analyst at Langton Capital, said: “You can’t defend the tragedy, but it has not stopped the company from doing what it does. Whether it will impact bookings, I’m not sure.” Brumby said: “It has been handled cack-handedly, but the management changed three times since 2006. It helps that Peter Fankhauser and [chief financial officer] Michael Healy were not running the business at the time. The current management has done as much


as it could.” He added: “The half-year figures were fine. They ticked all the right boxes.” Cook reported a reduction


in winter losses, a fall in debt and reduced interest payments, and promised a resumption of dividend payments to shareholders “in respect of 2016 earnings”. Thomas Cook last paid a dividend in 2011. The company said public outcry


over the Corfu deaths had not damaged bookings up to last week. The group’s share price did fall


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