When Peter Fankhauser, the Thomas Cook chief executive, described 2018 as “a disappointing year” for the company in Tuesday’s unscheduled trading update he wasn’t joking. Just how disappointing was laid bare yesterday when the venerable 177-year-old travel group reported a post-tax annual loss of £163 million (Dominic Walsh writes).
While the £30 million underlying profits downgrade to £250 million was the focus of this week’s profit warning, yesterday the issue of exceptional or separately disclosed items was highlighted by analysts. The post-tax loss was due to one-offs of £145 million.
One possible explanation for the unusually long list of exceptionals is the basing of internal bonus targets on underlying, rather than reported, profits increasing the temptation to categorise all manner of sois-disant one-offs under exceptionals.