Q4 Results: Thomas Cook’s Profit Tumbles On One-Time Gain In Base Quarter

Thomas Cook (India) Ltd.’s profit in the January-March period slumped as the year-ago numbers included a one-time accounting adjustment.

Net profit stood at Rs 13.5 crore, down from the Rs 5,872.6 crore in the quarter-ended March 2018, the travel services company said in an exchange filing. Thomas Cook reclassified Quess Corp Ltd. from a subsidiary to an associate company because of which its value was recorded at fair value against book value. This resulted into a one-time gain of Rs 5,825 crore, the filing said.

The figures are also not comparable as Quess Corp’s earnings were included in Thomas Cook’s numbers till Feb. 28, 2018, Chief Financial Officer and President of Commercial, Finance and Accounts Debasis Nandy told BloombergQuint in an interview.

Thomas Cook (India) had consolidated its human resource services business into Quess Corp last year to streamline its businesses into four key verticals.

Other Highlights

(Year-On-Year)

• Revenue stood at Rs 1,363.3 crore compared with Rs 2,572.9 crore a year ago.
• Operating loss came at Rs 54.6 crore against an operating profit of Rs 7.9 crore.
• Cost of services stood at Rs 1,037.5 crore versus Rs 937.1 crore.

Impact Of Higher Airfares

Nandy said higher airfares won’t deter the company’s foreign bookings. “Foreign bookings are 15 percent ahead of last year for outbound travel despite higher airfares that we have seen on account of rising oil prices and collapse of Jet Airways.”

The company also acquired a 70 percent stake in China-based ATC Travel Services to establish inbound business but doesn’t expect profit to come in immediately. “We don’t expect too much in the first year but over a period of time, it will add substantially to revenue and profitability,” Nandy said.

Watch the interview with Thomas Cook’s Debasis Nandy here.