Corporate Travel Management Shares Punished on Long-Awaited Return to ASX Trading

Corporate Travel Management shares (ASX: CTD) have finally returned to trading on the ASX after a suspension stretching back to August 2025, and the reception from markets was brutal. The CTD share price plunged more than 85% on its first day back, as markets weighed a damaging UK accounting scandal and years of customer refunds against an underlying business that has quietly returned to profit.

The stock last traded at A$16.07 before trading was halted in August 2025. On resumption, it gapped down to open at around A$3 and continued sliding through the session, closing at A$2.32, a single-day decline of 85.56% and a new low. Before you double take, that 85.56% decline is not a typo, but pent up pressure over the past year, that has seen the share price fall to levels not seen since 2012.

The move reflects more than fundamental repricing: long-term holders who had written positions down during the suspension appear to have exited into restored liquidity, adding technical pressure. The fall effectively resets the company’s market value to a fraction of its pre-suspension level, establishing a deeply pessimistic base from which any recovery story must now be built.

The scandal at the heart of the collapse

The problems originated in the company’s UK business, where a KPMG review found revenue had been recognised incorrectly on large customer contracts completed between 2021 and 2023. That included roughly GBP 45.4 million sitting in a “Concluded Customer Contracts” account that should not have been recognised as revenue. Corporate Travel initially indicated it could restate as much as GBP 58.2 million across FY23 and FY24, with a further GBP 19.4 million of adjustments flagged for FY25. The expected reversal has since grown to as much as GBP 118 million for FY25 and prior years, all confined to the UK division. The company maintains that reviews of other regions uncovered no similar issues.

Remediation work has progressed. The company said this week that around 78% of customer refunds have either been agreed or are close to finalised. Earlier updates described binding offers from key impacted UK customers covering GBP 102 million, roughly 86% of the estimated GBP 118 million liability, requiring refunds of GBP 87 million in total. Of that, GBP 11 million has already been paid, with the remaining GBP 76 million to be returned in stages through to 30 September 2027.

FY26 results show an operational pulse

Despite the turmoil, FY26 offered evidence the underlying business is moving in the right direction. Revenue and other income rose 4% to A$669.9 million, while underlying EBITDA jumped 36% to A$113.6 million. The group returned to profit, posting net profit after tax of A$17.7 million, a turnaround of more than A$366 million from the A$348.5 million loss recorded a year earlier, which had been driven largely by goodwill writedowns. Activity also picked up, with transaction volumes rising 13% to 18.3 million and total transaction value increasing 2% to A$9.8 billion.

Notably, Europe, the epicentre of the scandal, was one of the better-performing regions. European revenue climbed 34% to A$113.7 million, while underlying EBITDA improved to A$24.7 million from a A$1.2 million loss. Markets may discount that improvement given it coincides with the region at the centre of misconduct concerns, but it does demonstrate the strategic value of the franchise once issues are ring-fenced.

The balance sheet remains a key watchpoint. Corporate Travel ended FY26 with A$106.9 million in cash and has since secured an approximately A$175 million funding package, reported to be private equity-backed, to help fund customer repayments estimated at roughly A$272 million and to support ongoing operations. The additional capital reduces near-term solvency risk, though it likely comes with a higher cost of capital and tighter covenants that will weigh on free cash flow.

Management said trading in the first month of FY27 was broadly in line with expectations, though the early numbers were mixed. July transaction volumes rose to around 1.6 million from 1.5 million a year earlier, while revenue slipped to A$53.3 million from A$58.3 million, a divergence that raises questions about pricing, mix and discounting to retain clients. The company has also secured A$178 million of new business on a TTV basis so far in FY27, a useful indicator that corporate and government clients are still signing despite the reputational damage.

With the stock now down at a 14 year low, after a year of absence, this will be an interesting watch over the coming weeks to see how markets look to reprice the company, once the initial dust has settled.