Thomas Cook, the world's oldest travel group, in a statement said that it decided not to sell its French business. Instead of the sale, it would undertake a restructuring program to boost the performance of the unit.

The British travel firm said the review of the French unit's performance is in order to 'implement a specific transformation program for France to improve performance.' As a result, shares in Thomas Cook, fell 4% to 84.25 pence which values the whole company at GBP 800 million. The French subsidiary includes Aquatour, Jet Tours and Kuoni Tour Operators and has been hit hard by economic uncertainty in the French market and political upheavals in known French destinations such as Tunisia and Morocco.

Other issues besetting the travel firm would be the slump in the industry in the last two years, forcing the hand of the group to renegotiate loans and cut debts. Thomas Cook employs 1500 people in 520 travel agencies.