Tui warns of £170 million profit hit from grounding of Boeing jets. Travel firm TUI AG Reg Shs (DI) (TUI) on Friday warned profits could take a £170 million hit this year after the grounding of the Boeing 737 Max aircraft. Tui, which has a fleet of about 150 planes including 15 of the affected Boeings, admitted it would have to pay more to replace the planes and face higher fuel bills and other disruption costs. This follows the global grounding of Boeing jets in the wake of two crashes in six months involving the Max aircraft. The Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines tragedies killed 346 people. TUI said underlying profits this year will be 17% lower than the €1.2 billion (£1 billion) it made in 2018. It previously said profits would be “broadly flat”. But it warned that if the Boeing 737 Max remained grounded beyond July, it would cost the firm another €100 million (£86.2 million), on top of the €200 million (£173 million) hit.
founder Mike Ashley on Friday hit out at Debenhams (DEB) advisers as the department store chain moved closer to a restructuring which could see his stake wiped out. HSBC, one of Debenhams’ banks, sold out of its loans as the retailer inched closer to securing a £200 million restructuring. Bondholders, advised by FTI Consulting, have agreed to tweak the terms of some bonds yesterday, which helped the firm to bag £101 million on Friday, with a further £99 million locked away and dependent on Ashley or another major investor’s approval. This could lead to a pre-pack administration, which could see it change hands, or a debt-for-equity swap that would give lenders control, wiping out shareholders, such as Sports Direct, in the process. The tycoon said: “Now the results of the vote are known and we have also been subsequently advised that the supportive HSBC are no longer part of Debenhams’ revolving credit facility, I think that if there were any justice in the world the majority of the advisers would be put in prison.”
