Despite the free fall in the Indian currency over the week, Madhavan Menon, managing director at Thomas Cook India said that the company has seen no great decline in the demand.
Though the parent company, Thomas Cook UK, is presently gripped under impact of the debt-spiral, Menon sees a strong demand in India, and said the dollar appreciation is not likely to be a great concern with the Indian travellers. "The issues faced by Thomas Cook Plc will not have an impact on Thomas Cook India. Thomas Cook Plc is treated as a shareholder of Thomas Cook India and the Indian entity is a public limited company," he explained. However, he held that it takes about 6 months for demand to react to the ongoing currency fluctuations. Below is an edited transcript of Madhavan Menon's interview to CNBC-TV18. Also watch the accompanying video. Q: If things got very bad with Thomas Cook Plc, will it go the extent of winding up the Indian entity? A: The Indian entity is a public limited company and where we treat Thomas Cook Plc as a shareholder, although they do hold a majority shareholding. Essentially, from a legal point of view, we are totally ring fenced from the parent and given the local regulatory requirements, as well as corporate governance; there is no financial dependability between us and the parent. Hence, to that extent Thomas Cook India is totally ring fenced, our too operations are different from the parent. We have got a foreign exchange business and we have got a travel business whereas the parent has only got an outbound travel business which is driven by charters. So, regardless of what happens to the parent in this situation Thomas Cook India is not affected at all. Q: So, absolutely no kind of ramifications on account of the problems that the group company is facing? A: We did see some activity in the stock market yesterday but in reality we have reached out to all our clients, as well as our partners and ensured that we explain our position. So far we have not seen any reaction. We have been talking to the banks continuously since day before yesterday. Hence, in reality we havenDiscover the latest Business News, Sensex, and Nifty updates. Obtain Personal Finance insights, tax queries, and expert opinions on Moneycontrol or download the Moneycontrol App to stay updated!