S&P revises Thomas Cook to positive

S&P said it revised its outlook on Thomas Cook Group plc to positive from stable.

At the same time, the agency affirmed its B long-term corporate credit and issue ratings on the company. The recovery rating is unchanged at 3.

S&P said the outlook revision reflects Thomas Cook's resilient operating performance in 2016, despite disruptions in a number of its markets resulting from terrorist attacks, which required substantial redirection of capacity to safer destinations at short notice.

“It also reflects improving operating margins due to the company's focus on increasing the quality of product offerings despite operating losses in the airline business Condor, and the implementation of a new operating model based on increasing efficiencies and reducing operating leverage” the agency said in a news release.

“We think that gradually improving cash flow generation on the back of these measures, and a financial policy aimed at deleveraging, could support an upgrade of Thomas Cook in the next 12-18 months.”

© 2015 Prospect News.
All content on this website is protected by copyright law in the U.S. and elsewhere. For the use of the person downloading only.
Redistribution and copying are prohibited by law without written permission in advance from Prospect News.
Redistribution or copying includes e-mailing, printing multiple copies or any other form of reproduction.