Kuoni crashes to shock £119m loss

KUONI, one of the world's biggest long-haul tour operators, has crashed to a loss of £119m, hammered by the fall-off in tourist numbers since 11 September and a host of one-off items. Analysts had expected losses, but the extent of the damage shocked the markets.

The Switzerland-based operator has suffered far worse than rivals such as Thomas Cook due to big one-off write-downs for subsidiaries in the US, Scandanavia and Italy. The writedowns came to Swfr203.3m (£86m), adding to the Swfr80.5m already announced for overcapacity at its Scandanavian charter airline.

The group blamed 'an exceptionally turbulent year for the Kuoni group' but said it expected a big improvement in profits this year.

Net losses for 2001 were Swfr281.7m compared with a profit of Swfr115.1m the year before on sales of Swfr4.07bn - down 1.2%. There is no dividend. The final three months of the year, generally Kuoni's second most-profitable quarter, showed a loss of Swfr349.2m.

It warned in November that demand for trips to destinations such as UAE and Egypt had been especially hard hit.