Thomas Cook Collapse: Lufthansa Rules Out Making Any Takeover Bid

The collapsed British Travel company Thomas Cook UK will not have any takeover bid from German airlines major Lufthansa.

According to the latest news, Lufthansa has ruled out any plans to acquire the insolvent British travel company, which also owns Thomas Cook Airlines.

Reporting this, German newspaper Die Welt said, however, Lufthansa has some interest in placing an offer to Thomas Cook’s German subsidiary, Condor.

According to Thomas cook news, the board of 178-year-old British company decided to enter into compulsory liquidation after talks on a financial rescue package failed.

Reports said Thomas Cook was about to secure a £900 million ($1,120 million) rescue deal led by China's Fosun toward the end of August. But banks insisted on another £200 million ($250 million) and talks collapsed.

The British travel company filed for insolvency and ceased trading in the night from Sunday to Monday.

Peter Fankhauser, Thomas Cook's chief executive, issued an apology to all stakeholders including customers, employees, suppliers, and partners.

Condor had been flights for its parent company but the acquisition target now looks less lucrative after the main source of bookings left the market.

The news of the collapse of the U.K. travel industry major hit shares of China’s Fosun Tourism. The Fosun stock slumped nearly 5 percent in Hong Kong.

The parent company, Fosun International was the largest shareholder in Thomas Cook, per Refinitiv data.

Last flight of Thomas Cook Airlines

Meanwhile, all flight operations of Thomas Cook Airlines UK had been stopped with immediate effect. All aircraft have been impounded on arrival in the United Kingdom.

Thomas Cook flights were suspended and the sale of tickets stopped at 01:30 am local time Monday morning.

A detention letter on one of Thomas Cook’s Airbus A321s at Manchester Airport was also circulated on social media.

The last flight from Orlando, MT2643 arrived at Manchester Airport at 8:30 am local time on Monday.

Business Impact on associate brands

The collapse of the British global travel group may also affect the business of many brands it had been associated with.

Thomas Cook had many partner brands. They also included Club Med, a Chinese company owned by the Fosun Group.

Thomas Cook was also running Airtours, a specialist in package holidays throughout Europe, North America and the Caribbean.

Signature is another Thomas Cook venture that offered customers the option to ‘design their own holiday’ to more than 50 destinations.

Manos brand was selling ‘authentic and affordable holidays’ in Greece, Turkey Cyprus and India’s Goa under a range of flexible travel packages.

Meanwhile, the collapse of Thomas Cook may strengthen the position of German rival, TUI Holidays, and it may garner a dominant position in the mass-market.

Thomas Cook, although, it sold holidays of major cruises including Carnival, Royal Caribbean, and MSC Cruises, had no vessels.

TUI had an edge because it also owns cruise ships under brands like Hapag-Lloyd Cruises, Marella Cruises, and runs a joint venture called TUI Cruises with Royal Caribbean.

Meanwhile, Thomas Cook India said it has nothing to do with the collapsed British brand. It said the Indian business is unaffected as the unit is owned by Canada's Fairfax.