My Life in Treasury
Published  12 MIN READ

Travelling Without Moving

My Life in Treasury

The treasury experience of Amit Baraskar Vice President & Head – Treasury, Thomas Cook India Group, has been accrued over more than a decade and a half with the one company. But it’s a business unit that has a key role to play in a wider organisation that reaches across 28 countries and five continents, with its customers travelling to all corners of the globe. TMI talks to Baraskar about his own journey so far.

The resilience of some businesses to unforeseen downturns is quite remarkable. While the travel sector has been one of the hardest hit by events of the past few years, the capacity to bounce back demonstrated by some of its players is indeed noteworthy.

Amit Baraskar
Vice President & Head – Treasury, Thomas Cook India Group

One such company is Thomas Cook (India) Ltd. Part of the Fairfax Group, it is a leading integrated travel and financial services company. It reported a consolidated revenue of £0.4bn for nine months ended December 2022, an increase by 167% over the previous year. In the same period, the group also posted an EBITDA (Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation) of c.£20m. These figures suggest two facts: that travel is back on the agenda for many as control of the Covid-19 pandemic strengthens, and that Thomas Cook is a business with strong fundamentals.

Clearly, it has managed to keep its financials on the rails even as the markets were sent on an uncomfortable roller-coaster ride. A key part of its strategy has been the mitigation of FX exposure risk. The part of the organisation responsible for managing group FX risk is Thomas Cook India, where Baraskar has occupied the treasury hot seat for 16 years and counting.