HispanicBusiness

Travel giant Thomas Cook suffered an annual pre-tax loss of 485 million pounds (776 million dollars) as it counted the costs of restructuring in a "difficult trading environment," the company said in a statement Wednesday.

The British group said the losses for the year up to the end of September were up from last year's corresponding figure of 398 million pounds. Revenues fell to 9.5 billion pounds from 9.8 billion pounds.

However, the company said the annual figures "masked" a major improvement in business between July and September.

"These results reflect the major issues that Thomas Cook faced last year, but they mask the material improvement that we made in the fourth quarter," said chief executive Harriet Green.

She said the company had reduced its debts by more than 100 million pounds over the reporting period, to 788 million pounds.

Earlier this year, the group negotiated a refinancing package with banks of 1.4 billion pounds to give it more scope to repay its debts.