Thomas Cook Buyout
The Sunday Times - Business
February 22, 2004
Tour operator set for buyout
THOMAS COOK, the German holiday company whose British arm is the UK’s third-biggest tour operator, is set to be broken up by its co-owners, Lufthansa and the retailer Karstadt Quelle, writes Dominic O’Connell.
Leisure-industry sources say that a plan for sell-offs is being drawn up by a new management team brought in after Stephan Pichler, the company’s chief executive, was sacked in November.
Pichler left after announcing losses of £245m. He was replaced by Wolfgang Beeser.
Any break-up may lead to a management buyout at Thomas Cook UK, which runs mass-market holidays to Mediterranean sunspots. This follows preliminary contact between Thomas Cook UK’s management, led by chief executive Manny Fontenla-Novoa, and venture-capital firms including Cinven.
While Thomas Cook’s other European operations go on making heavy losses, the UK division is understood to have made a profit of about £30m in the last year.
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