COLLAPSE
THOMAS COOK
‘People need to be held accountable’
Industry figures behind a serious bid to save Tomas Cook more than seven years ago, when debt first threatened the group’s future, say it could have saved the company from liquidation. Clive Jacobs, owner and chairman
of Travel Weekly parent Jacobs Media Group, and former Tomas Cook executive Terry Fisher put together a £400 million deal to acquire Cook in March 2012. But the bid was rejected without explanation. Tey aimed to secure the
company’s future aſter its share price plunged in 2011, leaving the group almost worthless, but saddled with close to £1 billion in debt. Jacobs and Fisher proposed to sell off Cook’s businesses in Germany and Scandinavia to pay down the debt and finance a turnaround in the UK. Fisher had inside knowledge of
the business having quit Cook in late 2010. He and Jacobs identified a series of problems in the UK business that they believed could be addressed with the burden of debt removed. Jacobs described the debt, which
sent Tomas Cook into liquidation last week, as “an anchor weighing down the business”.
Clive Jacobs helped draw up a £400m bid to buy Cook in 2012
He said: “It’s a travesty to see
a company with a legacy of more than 100 years vanish through bad management and bad decisions. “It’s tragic for the employees, for
all the businesses and for suppliers, and it need not have happened.” Jacobs describes Cook’s
acquisition of The Co-operative Travel in 2011 as “a tipping point” that “set the business on a flawed path” when it should have been “reducing high street agencies, streamlining call centres and becoming much more online”. He added: “Te real issue was
failing to put people in [the business] who understood what was wrong.” Jacobs rejects the idea that
blame for the collapse should be apportioned to Cook’s last three chief executives, saying: “It’s easy to atack what they were paid and the mistakes they made. But it’s the duty of the chairman and the board of a public company to ensure governance and [look aſter] shareholder interest.” He added: “People need to be
held accountable. Te failure is the fault of those who were supposed to
manage the executives.” i Business News, back pages
CAA has ‘no pla
Te CAA has “no intention” of raising the £2.50 Atol Protection Contribution (APC) on holiday bookings in the wake of Tomas Cook’s collapse. Dame Deirdre Huton, chair of
the CAA, denied the repatriation and refund of Cook customers would cost the widely reported £600 million but conceded it will “clean out the trust”. She said: “I don’t know where that
figure came from. We estimate the cost of repatriation at £100 million, 60% of which will be paid by Atol [with 40% paid by the government to cover flight-only bookings]. “Tere are 360,000 forward
bookings and we estimate the Atol payouts at £420 million.” Huton said “there is no
intention” to raise APC and insisted Cook’s failure is “not going to make the trust insolvent”. She added: “We have a borrowing
facility. My expectation is it will continue as it is. Tat does not mean that, if there is a series of failures, we won’t have to look at it.” Huton was responding to
concerns raised by a senior industry source who told Travel Weekly: “If the bill for the failure is £600 million it
4 3 OCTOBER 2019
would take out the Air Travel Trust fund and [the fund’s] insurance. How much might the APC be increased to replenish the fund?” She acknowledged: “I’m sure there
will be some failures. It’s inevitable.” Huton confirmed Cook customers should be able to seek refunds online from October 6. About 100,000 who paid by direct debit will be refunded within 14 days. Te remaining refunds will take 60 days “because of the volume and complexity”. “Part of the problem is the
dispersed nature of the Cook databases,” Huton explained. “Data is spread over more than 100 data-processing sites across Europe.” An industry source said the lack
of data, in part caused by Cook going into liquidation rather than administration, was causing problems. Tey told Travel Weekly: “Where
an administrator would want the systems up and running, none of that has happened. Tere is no atempt to salvage the business. Te liquidator shut down all the servers. “Tere are no consumer issues,
but there is real pain in the trade. Tere was a lot of third-party tour operator business with Cook and
travelweekly.co.uk
CAA vows not to up
A repatriation flight operated by a Malaysia Airlines A380 aircraft (right) on Tuesday replaced seven cancelled Thomas Cook flights
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84
