Thomas Cook India in focus today as the company has met with investors to discuss the company's growth and strategies for the year ahead. In an interview to CNBC-TV18, Madhavan Menon, Chairman & MD of the company spoke at length about the same.
Thomas Cook (India) reported a stellar quarter with the travel services business showing a good growth. In an interview to CNBC-TV18, Madhavan Menon, CMD of the company discussed the Q3 performance.
Thomas Cook will sell 5.42 percent stake in their subsidiary Quess Corp via Rs 600 crore offer for sale. This will bring the promoter holding in Quess Corp down to 75.38 percent from 81.52 percent.
Thomas Cook (India) posted a decent set of earnings keeping the business environment in mind. In an interview to CNBC-TV18, Madhavan Menon, Chairman and MD, Thomas Cook spoke about the results and his outlook for the company.
Thomas Cook saw 60 percent growth in demand for monsoon 2017. In an interview to CNBC-TV18, Madhavan Menon, CMD of the company spoke about the strong monsoon bookings.
In an interview to CNBC-TV18, Madhavan Menon, Chairman & MD of Thomas Cook (India) spoke about the results and how next few quarters could look like.
Speaking to CNBC-TV18, Madhavan Menon, MD, Thomas Cook said the company was affected by demonetisation for a short period and bookings for 2017 summer season is back to normal.
With service tax rate increasing to 60 percent from 40 percent, cost to the consumer will go up, said Thomas Cook COO, Mahesh Iyer. The new tax will be effective from January 22.
Pawan Munjal, Managing Director of Hero Motocorp and Madhavan Menon of Thomas Cook believe that demonetisation will aid in long-term but lead to short-term pain
Demand is visible in South East Asian countries and Australia. The demand for long weekends in short haul packages has also risen, which is a complete new trend for Thomas Cook.
With the various acquisitions that they have done, the company is the single largest operator in the holiday space now, said Mahesh Iyer, COO, Thomas Cook.
The company‘s forex and inbound businesses are doing well largely, which makes Thomas Cook CMD Madhavan Menon expect this year‘s growth at par with last year.
Elaborating on the pilot project inked with Airbnb, Mahesh Iyer, chief operating officer- foreign exchange and head - visas at Thomas Cook India says internal research suggests the experiential holiday concept is catching up fast in India, as travellers today seek varied experiences than being confined to a hotel room.
Thomas Cook has seen growth in outbound tourism in Q42015 and they have already started bookings for summer 2016, said MD, Madhavan Menon.
Mahesh Iyer, Chief Operating Officer- Foreign Exchange & Head- Visas, Thomas Cook (India), says the company is the principal agency for Xpress Money and MoneyGram International Inc in India, via which the money is transferred by people working abroad who do not have access to formal banking channels.
In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Madhavan Menon, MD, Thomas Cook says the company has its focus around Europe and the United States where growth has been 26 percent and 19 percent, respectively.
The subsidiaries of the company have performed well with Quess growing almost 83 percent.
Business services and staffing company Quess Corp, a subsidiary of Thomas Cook India, has received board approval relating to its raise long-term funding needs, options that could also include coming out with an initial public offering (IPO), CMD Ajit Isaac told CNBC-TV18.
Thomas Cook (India) signed a long-term agreement with a global distribution company Amadeus. Amit Madhan, COO-IT & e-Services of Thomas Cook (India) spoke about the agreement details and company‘s future prospects.
Madhavan Menon also says that Ikya has worked out as an excellent acquisition. He expects Ikya to contribute more to company‘s profits and continue growing, led by policy changes.
The combined value of the two organisations will exceed about Rs 3,000 crore, said Madhavan Menon.
Sterling expects to get around Rs 187 crore through preferential issue which will be around 23.2 percent.
Speaking to CNBC-TV18, Madhavan Menon, managing director, Thomas Cook, says the company is likely to see a 20 percent plus growth on outbound travel. And while inbound travel was sluggish, it started seeing an improvement recently from Russian and American tourists.
Other subsidiaries of Thomas Cook have generated a sizeable growth on the PBT front despite the last quarter being a lean quarter for the tour and travel business, says Madhavan Menon, MD, Thomas Cook.
In an interview to CNBC-TV18, Madhavan Menon, MD, Thomas Cook spoke about properties and the last two quarters being tough for the company.