Paris (AFP)
Fifteen partial offers were filed for the resumption of tour operator Thomas Cook France, whose British parent company went bankrupt in September, one of which is carried by the current management team, according to a statement Wednesday.
Placed in receivership on 1 October, the French subsidiary of the tourism giant Thomas Cook employs 780 employees in France and owns 174 travel agencies in its own right - not counting 247 other franchised outlets that are not concerned by the procedure. .
Wednesday, the day after the deadline for the filing of recovery records, Thomas Cook France reported on fifteen offers, "all from tourism stakeholders," in a statement.
"An offer is being made by the current management team of Thomas Cook France for the takeover of part of the distribution activity and the tour-operating business (Jet Tours)," it says.
The fourteen other offers "relate to the takeover of agencies spread over the national territory, and some would be joint or could become," says the tour operator.
Until the hearing in Nanterre Commercial Court scheduled for November 5, "the judicial administrators concentrate all their efforts to the reconciliation of these offers and their improvements, with as priority the safeguarding of the employment and the implementation of a long-term project ".
"As such," warns Thomas Cook France, "additional time for these improvements could be considered."
At the end of September 2019, the group claimed a turnover ("gross consolidated") of 750 million euros, ranging between 380 million for its distribution network, and 370 million for its activity of tour operator via the brand Jet Tours.
But according to its accounts filed with the registry consulted by AFP, the French subsidiary also chained for years losses: -26 million for the year ended in September 2018, -30 million in 2017, -21 million in 2016.
At the time of the bankruptcy of the parent company Thomas Cook, some 10,000 French customers were on vacation in the world, but all have since been repatriated.
© 2019 AFP