dpa
Munich
German travel group FTI Touristik GmbH, the parent company of Europe’s third-largest tour operator FTI Group, has filed for insolvency.
On Monday, the district court in the southern German city of Munich appointed the lawyer Axel Bierbach as provisional insolvency administrator for the parent company.
“We are currently working at full speed to ensure that the trips that have already started can be completed as planned,” the operator said in a statement. Trips that have not yet begun will probably no longer be able to be carried out, or only partially, from June 4, the company said.
According to the information provided, initially only the tour operator brand FTI Touristik will be directly affected by the insolvency application. Subsequently, however, corresponding applications will also be filed for other group companies.
Following the insolvency, the German government does not anticipate an extensive state repatriation programme for German tourists, dpa learnt on Monday after a meeting of the crisis team at the Foreign Office in Berlin.
The website of the Foreign Office stated that as FTI is insured against insolvency via the German Travel Security Fund (DRS): Payments made - the entire travel price, if already paid, as well as advance payments - are secured in the event of insolvency. This applies to customers who have booked a package holiday.
It was reported in the industry that around 65,000 holidaymakers were currently travelling abroad with FTI.
The future of the company, which had received a total of Euro 595 million ($645 million) in government aid during the pandemic, seemed secure.
A consortium led by the US financial investor Certares intends to take over the FTI Group for Euro 1 and inject Euro 125 million of fresh capital into the company. The competition authorities still have to approve the deal.
However, according to the information provided, booking figures have recently fallen well short of expectations.
“In addition, numerous suppliers insisted on advance payment. As a result, there was an increased need for liquidity, which could no longer be bridged until the closing of the investor process,” FTI announced.
According to financial newspaper Handelsblatt, FTI is said to have had a short-term deficit in the double-digit million-euro range.
Following negotiations at the weekend, the federal government denied further aid for the company.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Monday in Berlin that there were budgetary, legal and economic reasons why no further aid beyond the “very many large amounts of aid” had been provided.
German government sources said that in the course of negotiations on the federal government’s claims arising from the coronavirus pandemic, it had been agreed that the investor would buy these from the government at market prices. This would have meant losses for the government. However, these could now be significantly higher in the event of insolvency.
Government sources spoke of an expected loss of around 84% is expected.
