Tui Travel confirmed it was losing two board members in the same week that it parted company with its auditors KPMG following the discovery of a £117m hole in the company’s accounts.
Jeremy Hicks, Tui’s audit committee chairman, and fellow non-executive director Giles Thorley have announced they will not stand for re-election at the company’s annual general meeting on February 3 and they will stand down from January 31. There is no suggestion that their departures are connected with the company’s accounting difficulties.
Each had served with the company for three years.
Tui’s deputy chairman Sir Michael Hodginkinson said they had been "valued" members of the Tui Travel board since its creation in 2007.
KPMG resigned as the company’s auditor last month after it was discovered that an IT blunder had led to Tui overstating its profits in 2009, which in turn led to the resignation of Tui finance director Paul Bowtell. Shareholders will be asked to approve the appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers as new auditors at the AGM.
The company said it had begun the process of identifying potential new non-executive Directors and announcements are expected shortly.
By Linsey McNeill
