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https://www.ttgmedia.com/news/news/thomas-cook-pledges-further-40-million-for-own-brand-hotel-operation-18232

More wider media coverage on Hi Fly bid with Reuters sending out a media update.

@Bkkk I see the announcement on the airline sale being a number of weeks away yet. The Nordic bid came in late. My view is that the Nordic tour business will now be sold along with the rest of the airline business which increases what TC will have to pay down debth by a couple of hundred million than the original position and is a change to plans when they first announced the strategic review of the airline. Condor will most certainly go to Lufthansa who may take the remaining airline business less the Nordics. I believe all announcement around the sale will be announced at the same time. After that a more streamlined smaller business with a massive strong partner in Fosun makes TC a positive future. I'm a long term holder in TC and have been following this business for years. I will be topping up again on Monday. I do not see a bid for the entire tour operator business being accepted by the board or advisors.

A lot of talk by some of it not being a great time to sell but the reality in the airline sector is that it's the ideal time to sell as the big boys look to consolidate

https://www.routesonline.com/news/29/breaking-news/284635/lufthansa-ceo-carsten-spohr-on-adapting-in-an-uncertain-market/

A lot of buys in the last hour, glad a purchased some more this morning.

https://skift.com/2019/05/21/skift-forum-asia-fosun-tourism-ceo-on-creating-the-foliday-brand/

* The Nordic business is a know entity to Triton. The former CEO of the TC Nordic business now the chairman of Sunweb... with that news emerging last week I topped up. GLA

The TC Nordic business is a know entity Triton with the former CEO of that ran the business for TC now the chairman of Sunweb... with that news emerging last week I topped up. GLA..

The Nordic business is smaller than those in the UK and Continental Europe, and in 2018 made it $1.6 billion (£1.3 billion) in revenue but is more profitable than both with underlying earnings (EBIT) of $120 million (£95 million).

As well as its profitability, the business doesn’t have the drain of a retail store presence in the market like it does in the UK and elsewhere in Europe.

Great to see interest in this arm of TC. The only way is up from here...

announcement on sale can't be too far away - time to top up...

Results will be inline with guidance otherwise we would have got a profit warning by now. Loss probably increased by 40m over last years figures but news will be offset by 400m banking agreement and any positive news on the airline sale... pure speculation and just my opinion...

Regarding the value of the airline. The X factor thats missing from the conversation here is that the purchaser will have seat's sold on the airline which will fill at a minimum 50% of capacity. No other airline that's for sale today other than tour operators can offer this value.

By way of example have a look at the Candian tour operatior- Transat AT.
They don't have the debt issue but you'll notice that the share price climbed 56% because of the X-factor.

https://skift.com/2019/05/01/canadas-transat-is-latest-tour-operator-to-put-itself-up-for-sale/

Trying to compare this to Flybe is ludicrous and I simply ignore such ill informed comments.

On the podcast that was shared on this thread recently the Financial analyst said that this X factor was significant and give by way of an example that if the airline was worth 100m then the X factor of having ready sold customers was at a factor of 10 times thus valuing it at 1 billion. I would suspect that selling it to one airline like Lufthansa is more attractive even if the value sold is less than if it was sold to different airline. However who ever is going to buy part or all will have to pay for the X factor.

Option to buy the lot. If it does by the lot that would be a massive result from the perspective of securing seats for TC customers and only having to deal with the one partner.

Maggoo they have closed over 200 stores in the past two years. They will close a multiple of that recent announcement by year end. Prudent that mgt not alarm the travelling public but get on with the strategy.

In my view correct good to have the buffer in place with latest banking agreement.The announcement on May 16th may be that airline isn't going to be sold only the long haul to Lufthansa so best have finances secured regardless if sale of the airline happens or not.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landing_slot

Value of landing slots + minimum filled planes of greater than 30% with TC customers + transatlantic slots must be a big attraction

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-thomas-cook-grp-m-a-airlines/thomas-cook-sets-may-7-deadline-for-interest-in-airline-business-sources-idUSKCN1S749X

Seems like lots of interest and no surprise that the date has been set so an update can be given at the upcoming half year results meeting.

https://skift.com/2019/04/30/thomas-cook-ceo-pushes-a-turnaround-plan-dodges-takeover-chatter/

Sale of Condor can't be too far away...

Also the GM today clears the technical hurdle associated with selling the airline business. With a good wind behind us it would be great to see this happen in advance of the AGM.

Lufthansa has a war chest of more than six billion euros for possible acquisitions available.

Https://www.aero.de/news-31509/Lufthansa-verhandelt-ueber-Condor-Langstrecke.html

It's only a matter of time before the Crane announce the capture of Condor either the long haul business or all of Condor...