Legendary travel company Thomas Cook filed bankruptcy after failing to obtain additional financing from its creditors.
According to reports in the New York Times and other publications, between 150,000 and 600,000 travelers are stranded around the world, and the British Government, which refused to bail out the troubled 178-year old travel company, is struggling to bring them home.
Peter Fankhauser, Cook’s chief executive, issued a statement saying, “We have worked exhaustively in the past few days to resolve the outstanding issues on an agreement to secure Thomas Cook’s future for its employees, customers and suppliers. Although a deal had been largely agreed, an additional facility requested in the last few days of negotiations presented a challenge that ultimately proved insurmountable.
“It is a matter of profound regret to me and the rest of the board that we were not successful. I would like to apologize to our millions of customers, and thousands of employees, suppliers and partners who have supported us for many years. Despite huge uncertainty over recent weeks, our teams continued to put customers first, showing why Thomas Cook is one of the best-loved brands in travel.”
An application was made to the High Court for a compulsory liquidation of the company before opening of business today and an order has been granted to appoint the Official Receiver as the liquidator of the Company. Cook anticipates that the Official Receiver will make an application to the High Court for members of AlixPartners UK to be appointed as special managers to act on behalf of the official receiver, and we further anticipate that an order will be granted to that effect. As part of this process, a number of other Thomas Cook Group companies have also entered into compulsory liquidation, with members of either AlixPartners UK or KPMG (depending on the company) being appointed as special managers in respect of the relevant Group companies.
