Article from BTNews 21 OCTOBER 2019
Fankhauser stalls over bonus
Former Thomas Cook chief executive Peter Fankhauser last week refused to tell MPs whether he would give back all or some of his bonus to help to pay redundancy to former staff and contribute to the cost of bringing stranded customers home after the company collapsed.
Giving evidence to the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee about Thomas Cook's failure, Fankhauser stressed he was “deeply sorry” for failing to save the company but disagreed his apologies would sound more sincere if he said he would return some of his 2017 bonus of £558,000.
Fankhauser said: "I fully understand where you are coming from … [but] I worked tirelessly for the success of this company … there were multiple parties which had to commit to the deal which did not succeed.
“In my reflection I will consider what is right, but I am not going to decide that today."
He said his efforts to modernise Thomas Cook were constrained by £1.2bn of refinancing and debt and defended his bonuses, saying 30% was paid in shares which were now worthless.
"I never sold one share, as I was believing in the success of the company," he added, pointing out he did not receive any bonuses in 2018 or 2019.
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