Thomas Cook (India) Limited (“TCIL”) today reported that the consolidated operating EBIT, before integration costs, grew to Rs 1042.4 million, a growth of 16% over 2007, despite the challenging economic environment in 2008. After adjusting the integration costs of Rs 58.7 million, the reported EBIT stood at Rs 983.6 million (Previous year Rs. 971.3 million).
Finance costs grew by 12% over the previous year due to the higher cost of borrowings.
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Consequently, reported PBT for the full year 2008 is Rs. 631.2 million (Previous year Rs 656.0 million). After adjusting for integration costs of Rs 58.7 million in 2008 (Previous year non-operating gains of Rs 75.0 million), the operating PBT increased by 19%.
The income from operations increased from Rs 2850.6 million in 2007 to Rs 3100.0 million, registering a growth of 9%. However, sustained cost control measures enabled the company to increase the Operating Margin by 2%.
In 2007 the company had taken a one time tax credit of Rs. 94.7 million, arising due to non-compete payment and certain amalgamation related payments for the merger of LKP Forex. Consequently taxes for 2008 were at Rs. 226.0 million and are higher than previous year of Rs. 136.9 million. PAT before the exceptional cost for the year was at Rs 405.1 million. (Previous year Rs 519.3 million)
The Company also successfully completed a Rights Issue recently, garnering Rs. 1800 million from the issue and redeeming the Preference Shares alongwith the premium and the dividend thereon. This reduced the debt to equity ratio significantly to below 1:1.
Commenting on the performance of the Company, Mr. Madhavan Menon, Managing Director, TCIL said that, “The Company has registered a stable result despite the current market conditions. It has been a challenging year and our Company is strong and mature enough to face future challenges.”
Initiatives in the year 2008:
- Focus on Domestic Tourism
Launch of Domestic Tourism through: My India, My Way
Summer Holiday Sale, a 20 cities pan-India Holiday roadshow
Recently, we have organized a 30 cities pan-India roadshow offering great holiday deals - Organic expansion of Network
- PGDM course in Business Management in Tourism launched in NMIMS Bangalore campus as well
- First Travel Agent to offer Indian Rail Bookings online in partnership with IRCTC
- Launch of Online portal www.thomascook.in, that also tied up with ItzCash
- Tie-up with Axis Bank for pre-paid forex card which offers exchange of upto 7 currencies
- Integration with Hotels4u real time on www.thomascook.in giving customers first hand access to over 30,000 hotels in the Hotels4u inventory.
Thomas Cook (India) today is one of the largest players providing integrated travel services with market leadership in foreign exchange and Inbound travel segment. Thomas Cook also won the ‘Best Travel Agent – India 2008’ Award by TTG Asia and the ‘Best Tour Operator’ Award in the CNBC AWAAZ Travel Awards 2008.
About Thomas Cook (India) Limited
Thomas Cook (India) offers a broad spectrum of travel and related services such as package tours, currency exchange and travel insurance as well as hotel and flight reservations. Thomas Cook has been present in India for over 127 years and operates over 180 offices at various locations in the country and has operations in Sri Lanka & Mauritius. It employs around 2,500 employees all over. In its initiative to be a ‘One Stop Shop’, the Company offers a range of travel and financial services / products to its customers. Additional information on Thomas Cook (I) Limited is available on the Company website www.thomascook.in
About Thomas Cook Group plc
Thomas Cook Group plc is one of the world’s leading leisure travel groups with sales of £8.8 billion, 22.3million customers, 31,000 employees, a fleet of 93 aircraft and a network of over 3,400 owned and franchised travel stores and interests in 86 hotels and resort properties. It operates under five geographic segments in 21 countries. We are number one or number two in our core markets.
