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https://www.economist.com/business/2019/04/27/europes-airline-industry-is-consolidating

here's the view of another analyst

http://www.travelweekly.co.uk/articles/330050/thomas-cook-speculation-over-bid-interest-no-surprise-says-city-analyst

Harrycash - have you read the 2019 Q1 results. It's worth reading to get more insight into the company direction and focus.

https://seekingalpha.com/article/4239610-thomas-cook-groups-tckgf-ceo-peter-fankhauser-q1-2019-analyst-investors-call-transcript

Maybe it's too overly positive from the board however the highlevel points are that the Airline was split out a couple of years back, teeing it up for a sale... Q1 is the difficult part for banking convenants and a healthy level of liquidity was in place to cover the winer months. Summer was already at 30% sold. Learnt from last year and reduced capacity and no change was given to full year expectations. I suspect we would have heard by now if there was going to be a change in guidance. As this has not happened, I suspect worst case scenario is that guidance is as previously stated.

Company been restructuring for a number of years now and let's see how it plays out but I think one can read between the lines and see that the Airline is up for sale to pay down the 2022 debt early...

@MP0818 - I noticed that on one of the weekend media reports stated that TC are not planning to comment on the current takeover situation until the half year results in May so no surprise that we are not seeing an RNS.

Latest media report, we may see another surge forward with the improving bond position...

Bonds and stock set for best day since early December

The company's shares listed on London's small-cap index were 16.2 percent in late morning trade and the price of the company's 2022 euro-denominated bonds rose more than 6 percent, according to Tradeweb.

Both were set for their best daily performance since early December.

The cost of insuring debt issued by the company against default eased to 24 basis points to its lowest in weeks from 28 previously, IHS Markit data showed.

The report comes after Thomas Cook put its airline business up for sale and closed stores in February, after a heatwave in northern Europe last summer deterred holidaymakers from booking last-minute deals, leading to two profit warnings and speculation among investors that it might need to raise funds.

Thomas Cook last month announced a review of its money division in its latest step to streamline operations and focus on its core holiday business. ($1 = 0.7691 pounds)

Recent buys by the board... Didn't see that happen at Debs!...

17. Dec 18 Buy Peter Fankhauser Individual 14. Dec 18 14. Dec 18 172,117 £0.29 £50,000
06. Dec 18 Buy Antoinette Aris Individual 06. Dec 18 06. Dec 18 60,104 £0.35 £21,301
05. Dec 18 Buy Lesley Mary Knox Individual 04. Dec 18 04. Dec 18 208,778 £0.23 £47,164
05. Dec 18 Buy Frank L. Meysman Individual 04. Dec 18 04. Dec 18 373,000 £0.22 £80,456
26. Sep 18 Buy Frank L. Meysman Individual 25. Sep 18 25. Sep 18 150,000 £0.60 £89,495

Opened now, just purchased at 28.95

That's how I read it Jed... The Chinese market has massive potential and so their approach is to buy one of the leading companies in that holiday sector...It wouldn't be the first time that Fosun brought a portion of a company, put a partnership in place, monitored progress and then brought out the entire business.

@Bobsbank Wolves had a good season and It was disappointing that they didn't make the FA Cup final. I noticed at the Semi-final that Thomas Cook had add's on the digital boards and was looking forward to seeing them splashed all over on FC Cup final day - Nice to see the partnership is going well...

Fosun cannot purchase the entire business now due to EU rules regarding the airline. I anticipate we'll get an update at the half year results in May.

Also mgt have been doing the necessary to turn this around since 2015 when their was real disruption in the market. Signs were good first half of last year when results were very positive with bookings etc then got badly caught out with over capacity when the lates market collapsed due to the heatwave across northern Europe. Mgt have called out to the market that capacity will be less this year so that losses won't occur if similar circumstances happen so if it's an ok season expect to see profits. Of course Brexit will likely impact the first half year results but they called out at -3% on bookings and there was no concerns raised on finances for first half so far. Expecting results will be flat with positives shown on the strategy. Over 200 shops closed in past 3 years more required which is happening as per the recent announcement.

The rights issue back in 2013 was at 76p be nice to see it climb to that level before Fosun buys us out...

A 25% rise this week would do nicely. Fosun paid over 120p for their initial investment with all eyes on cornering the Chinese market which is expected to grow significantly.. Invested for the Brand so that it would resonate with the Chinese market.. @Gate13Boy Not buying TC the for the UK market the tour business is their focus and if airline is sold that still works for the.

Sharing the details of when they first invested...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-31761089

hawkwing81 - What's all this silly talk about not wanting to sell the airline and only doing it now because their hand forced by the lenders... Some research would show that the airline was strategically put out to the market for sale a few years back it has always been on the cards.

Selling the airline is complicated by two things. A) The different parts of the Airline business and B) The fact that a deal will need to be done for Thomas Cook's holiday customers to travel on the purchasers airline. Lufthansa don't have this problem and they previously owned the Condor business and it's a great fit however regulations in the country will need to be given the green light before they'll be able to offer. What happens the remaining airlines businesses or selling the entire airline is currently being explored by the 3 investments banks that TC brought in to advice on the sale of the airline.
In my view, like all things in life, the investment banks are institutional investors across many quoted companies and when they were brought in to look at selling the airline they opened the door to suitors to look at the entire business.

Going to be in interesting few weeks/months ahead. Not sure I can see the sale of Condor being announced without an announcement that they also have a buyer for the rest of the airline so as to reassure customers/market. I guess what would be a big surprise is if Lufthansa don't get Condor and let someone else buy the lot. I cannot see that happening to the big Crane.

Selling the airline of course opens up the tour business to Fosun... Shares price only going one way in the next few weeks...

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-thomas-cook-grp-m-a-idUSKCN1RW0C8

More media picking this up is exactly what we need.

Good news indeed. Should see rise until we get an official announcement which could be as far out as the half year results next month. Interesting that Will Waggot was former CEO of one of the likely suitors - Travelopia.

Interesting times ahead.

It won't be sold by planes but by business. The Condor business has 41 planes mostly Boeing 767s.

Will be topping up tomorrow. Media starting to put out more info on Lufthansa buying condor. After today's poor results by Lufthansa there's going to be more consolidation which is the stated strategy that Lufthansa recently announced.

According to this article(month old) a deal is imminent - https://aviationnews.online/2019/03/06/lufthansa-close-to-buying-condor-redeploys-eurowings-long-haul/

@Jed I believe fosun has a bigger stake as follows

6.7%-owned by Fosun Tourism
17 % owned by fosun international
And Fosun International owns 81% of fosun toursim