Betaville

The Thomas Cook affair...

Betaville doesn't get any enjoyment from seeing a company go bust, people lose their jobs and holidaymakers enduring mayhem...

Read more...

Thomas Cook on the brink (of collapse), according to the Daily Mail

Betaville doesn't enjoy seeing any company collapse into administration but I note the fact that the Daily Mail and others are now reporting that Thomas Cook is on the verge of going under. Below is a link to the Daily Mail piece (which was splashed across the front page of the main book but I think was a follow from the Kleinmanator of Sky News)...

Read more...

Thomas Cook rescue deal on a knife edge, according to Kleinman

Several weeks ago Betaville copped an earful from a person close to Thomas Cook on a rare Sunday off for a piece I wrote in the Mail on Sunday's business section about the tour operator's restructuring. Below is the link:..

Read more...

Sunday review on a Monday: BT Group, Phoenix Group and Thomas Cook

John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, appreared to definitively rule out any potential re-nationalisation of BT Group in yesterday's The Sunday Times following reports from Yahoo Finance a couple of weeks ago that Labour was looking at the possibility of taking the telecoms giant back into public ownership.

Below is the link to Oliver Shah and John Collingridge's fascinating piece in yesterday's business sections:..

Read more...

The strange goings-on with Thomas Cook's debt...- Part 3

No wonder credit default swaps on Thomas Cook's bonds (effectively the cost of bond insurance) were blowing out earlier this week.

Overnight, the details of some funky debt-for-equity swap deal emerged via the Kleimmanator of Sky News (to be fair, it was a good scoop) with Fosun, the Chinese conglomerate that is already Thomas Cook's largest shareholders. Below is the link:..

Read more...

The strange goings-on with Thomas Cook's debt...- Part 2

Thomas Cook's debt is coming back into focus as a few punters have noticed credit default swaps for some of the company's bonds are blowing out a tad.

According to Bloomberg data, the CDS - the cost of insurance for a bond - for one Thomas Cook note has leapt by 12000 basis points or around 120pc while the security flirts with an all time low of 34 cents (its denominated in EUROS)...

Read more...

The strange goings-on with Thomas Cook's debt...

Last week there was a report on Bloomberg that some of the lenders to Thomas Cook had begun offloading the company’s debt amid fears about the company’s financial position.

According to Bloomberg, lenders holding around £300 million of Thomas Cook's debt were contacting potential buyers and brokers about selling some of the debt at half its current market value...

Read more...

Is Waggott being lined up as Thomas Cook's new chief executive?

Thomas Cook is under seige with City brokers, such as Citigroup, speculating the company's shares are worthless.

That has prompted a sharp sell off of the company's shares and bonds, which are now trading at distressed levels.

So, senior bankers have begun to speculate about what the company's tough chairman, Frank Meysman, might do to dig the company out of the hole it finds itself in...

Read more...

Is Fosun about to do a Mike Ashley with Thomas Cook?

The collapse of Debenhams wasn't exactly Mike Ashley's finest hour.

The owner of Newcastle United Football Club lost £150 million on the 29.9pc equity stake he built over several years after being outmanouvered by the credit funds and the company ahead of a financial restructuring.

Now, though, it would appear Fosun - the Chinese conglomerate led by Guo Guangchang, dubbed China's Warren Buffett - is following a similar path to maverick Mike...

Read more...

Quelle Surprise: Thomas Cook announces "strategic review" of airline

Hat tip to friend and occasional colleague John "The Ridge" Collingridge, deputy City editor of The Sunday Times, who revealed last summer that Thomas Cook was once again weighing a sale of its airline.

Below is a link to John's scoop:

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/thomas-cook-eyes-break-up-with-airline-sale-xzkwhh2n3..

Read more...