Thomas Cook in £1.5bn loss as Brexit woe hits holidays

THOMAS Cook shares tumbled nearly 15pc after it racked up record half-year losses of £1.5bn.

On another bleak day for investors, the debt- riddled travel company also sounded the alarm over the outlook for the rest the year.

Shares closed down 14.7pc, or 3.38p, to 19.61p, valuing the business at around £300m and sparking speculation it could become a takeover target.

Chief executive Peter Fankhauser claimed Brexit worries have put families off booking their summer holidays.

He said there was ‘little doubt’ its customers had delayed making travel plans in the early months of 2019, when it would usually start lining up bookings for later in the year.

And the firm warned it would struggle in ‘challenging’ trading this summer as there has been ‘no tangible change’ to bookings in the weeks since Brexit was pushed back to October 31.

Before March 29 – when the UK was due to leave the european Union – there were concerns that a No Deal scenario could cause major travel disruption. there were worries about long delays at borders and that leaving the eU would trigger a plunge in the value of the pound, which would make holidays in europe and elsewhere more expensive.

thomas Cook’s first-half losses were five times larger than the £303m shortfall it made in the same period last year.

And in its third profits warning in less than a year, thomas Cook warned that the second half would be worse than previously thought.

thomas Cook was also forced to write down the value of My travel, which it bought in 2007, by £1.1bn.

thomas Cook, which has debts of £1.25bn, also announced it is cutting 150 jobs at its head office in Peterborough as it continues to try to cut costs.

Neil Wilson, chief market analyst at Markets, described it as ‘a whopper of a loss and a profits warning’.