Thomas Cook scrambles for £200 million to avert collapse

Britain’s Thomas Cook urgently needs £200 million to satisfy its lenders or one of the world’s oldest holiday companies could collapse in the next few days, potentially leaving hundreds of thousands of holidaymakers stranded.

The pioneer of the package holiday agreed key terms of a 900 million pound recapitalisation plan last month with Chinese shareholder Fosun and the travel firm’s banks, significantly diluting existing shareholders.

But the firm released a statement on Friday saying a last-minute demand for additional funding puts that deal at risk.

Thomas Cook employs 21,000 staff and has 600,000 customers currently on holiday, mostly from Germany, Britain and Scandinavia.

A source familiar with the negotiations said the company had “a matter of days” to find a solution. Shares in the company hit a record low of 2 pence following the statement, down 15 percent on the day.

Lenders are demanding another 200 million pounds in underwritten funds to support Thomas Cook through its winter trading period, when cash is usually running low.

“Discussions to agree final terms on the recapitalisation and reorganisation of the company are continuing,” Thomas Cook said.

“These discussions include a recent request for a seasonal standby facility of 200 million pounds, on top of the previously announced 900 million pounds injection of new capital.”

Thomas Cook said the recapitalisation posed “a significant risk of no recovery” for the diluted shareholders.

Thomas Cook has struggled with competition in popular destinations, high debt levels and an unusually hot summer in 2018 which reduced last-minute bookings.

The firm has 1.7 billion pounds of debt.

Latest Credit Default Swap (CDS) pricing indicates an implied probability of default on Thomas Cook of 100%, data from IHS Markit showed, and a decision on whether investors who used the instrument to bet against the company are due a payout has been delayed until at least Monday.

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