Polish travel group eSky has agreed a deal to buy Thomas Cook, the world’s oldest travel brand, from its current Chinese owner, Fosun, just as it gets back on its feet.
ADVERTISEMENTPolish travel platform eSky will acquire Thomas Cook from Chinese group Fosun for a total of £30m (€35.6m).
"The online travel agency business in the United Kingdom...does not align with the core competencies and strategic focus of the group," said Fosun in a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange.
The sale does not include Thomas Cook's business in China.
Thomas Cook, a travel company founded in the UK in 1841, fell into insolvency in 2019 after failing to clear a debt burden of £1.1 billion.
The company's collapse led to chaos in the travel industry and triggered the biggest peacetime repatriation in the UK’s history, as the British government helped organise return trips for more than 150,000 holidaymakers who were stranded overseas.
Later in 2019, the firm was subsequently acquired by its biggest shareholder, Chinese conglomerate Fosun, for £11m (€13.06m).
Thomas Cook was relaunched in 2020 as an online-only service, while UK competitor Hays Travel acquired about 550 of its physical outlets.
Since then, the struggling travel company has been on the road to recovery, with CEO Alan French predicting a full-year profit for 2024.
In 2023, Thomas Cook recorded a pre-tax loss of £3.6m (€4.3m), down from last year's £13.5m (€16.0m) loss.
Fosun's decision to let go of the travel group fits into its wider strategy to streamline its operations.
After expanding before the pandemic, a climate of high interest rates has since squeezed the Chinese conglomerate.
Polish firm eSky Group, founded in 2004, operates in more than 50 countries across Europe, the Americas, and Africa.
Its 2023 profits surpassed €19m, up 42% year-on-year.
"The synergy of Thomas Cook's brand heritage with our technology will drive Thomas Cook's growth and allow us to strengthen eSky’s position in Western Europe," said Łukasz Habaj, co-founder and CEO of eSky Group, in a statement.
"This acquisition is part of our strategy to diversify from just selling flights to offering package holidays across our existing markets in Europe and Latin America, as well as expand further into Western Europe," he added.
