Thomas Cook earnings guidance broadly in line with market view

LONDON, Sept 16 (Reuters) - British holiday operator Thomas Cook guided full-year earnings would be in the range of 315 million pounds to 335 million pounds, putting it broadly on course to meet analyst expectations.

The company said on Tuesday that its operational performance in the 12 months to the end of September would show material improvement on last year despite a recent downturn in consumer confidence in Germany.

For its key summer season, Thomas Cook (Xetra: A0MR3W - news) said that weaker prices, which it first warned about in May, continued but it had offset that impact by speeding up its cost-cutting plan.

Analysts currently expect the company to report earnings before interest and tax of 327 million pounds ($530.2 million) in the 12 months to the end of September, according to a Thomson Reuters consensus forecast.

Shares (Frankfurt: DI6.F - news) in Thomas Cook lost about 3 percent of their value on Monday after the company's larger rival Tui Travel (LSE: TT.L - news) agreed a merger with its majority owner TUI AG (Xetra: TUAG00 - news) , creating the world's largest leisure and tourism group with a combined value of 6.5 billion euros. ($1 = 0.6168 British Pounds) (Reporting by Sarah Young, Editing by Paul Sandle)