Shares in listed online travel retailer Webjet ended down 3.5% yesterday after a slide on the back of surprise news that the company had been caught short with the failure of UK travel business, Thomas Cook.
The recovery follows an update from the company to the ASX regarding the collapse Thomas Cook, which was it’s of its strategic partner in the UK.
Webjet looks like being forced to write-off $43.7 million following the collapse of Thomas Cook.
After being down as much as 6% in early trading, the shares ended the day down 3.5% at $11.11.
It said yesterday had expected to earn between $150 million and $200 million in 2019-20 total transactional value from Thomas Cook, which owed Webjet about 27 million euros ($A43.7 million) when it collapsed over the weekend.
“The impairment of any unpaid receivables will be treated as a one-off expense to the income statement,” Webjet said in a statement to the ASX.
The firm said the write-off would be covered by existing cash reserves that stood at $211.4 million at June 30 plus undrawn debt facilities.
The demise of the 178-year-old Thomas Cook is also expected to reduce the $27 million to $33 million in additional earnings Webjet had anticipated from its WebBeds accommodation business by as much as $7 million.
