ASX investors have been left in limbo as Corporate Travel Management Ltd (ASX: CTD) stays suspended, its auditors digging through years of statements and uncovering major overcharging issues.
Ever been stuck, pre-flight on the tarmac, sitting on an A380 waiting for take-off?
Maybe it’s a 10-minute delay as the runway clears congestion, or weather that delays an hour or two.
What about 3 months? With little end in sight.
Unlikely. But this is the feeling for Corporate Travel Management shareholders. Having first gone offline voluntarily to investigate the potential for erroneous financial statements, the ASX continued its suspension. The exchange noted it would remain in no man’s land until the company issued its FY25 statements.
What happened to Corporate Travel
On 22 August 2025, Corporate Travel requested a trading halt.
4 days later, moved into voluntary suspension while it investigated “potential rectification and restatement” of prior financial statements. The ASX then issued a continuation-of-suspension notice. Basically saying Corporate Travel would remain suspended until it lodges its 2025 financial reports and that the ASX is satisfied trading should resume.
Then the big one.
The company scrapped plans to release in September after its new auditors said they needed more time to dig through 3 years of accounts. At that stage, Corporate Travel said the potential restatements were confined to its UK/Europe business. Later updates then flagged a separate AUD $13.9 million issue in Australia & New Zealand.
In a November update, the company conceded that they don’t really know when it will release its 2025 statements.
The Corporate Travel overcharging controversy.
Corporate Travel has admitted that British and European clients were overbilled by around £80 million (about AUD $160 million) between 2023 and 2025. It now expects to reverse roughly £58 million of revenue across FY23–24. Furthermore, it would incur a further ~£19 million hit in FY25 as refunds, contract changes and clawbacks flow through.
But is it just Europe?
The AFR reported this week that Australian finance department officials wrote to Corporate Travel requesting more information about its issues. The company has since agreed to undertake an independent audit to determine whether any overcharging occurred. Corporate Travel has a significant contract to provide travel bookings for parliamentarians with some years still to run.
Not to miss an opportunity for a refund, the indebted Victorian government has separately requested an audit into the company’s conduct.
The Vic’s alone have awarded $110 million worth of contracts over the past 9 years, including the pandemic hotel quarantine program.
Was this a long time coming?
The market has scrutinised Corporate Travel for years.
In 2018, Corporate Travel found itself the target of the VGI short report due to 20 “red flags”. Issues ranging from accounting policies, unusually rich margins to (allegedly) “ghost offices”.
If you’re new to hedge fund strategies, as a short-selling hedge fund, VGI stands to profit from the decline in Corporate Travel’s share price. At the time, Corporate Travel vigorously rejected those claims and even threatened legal action, arguing the short thesis misunderstood its model.
Where things stand now
While still suspended pending audited 2025 financial statements, the company faces revenue reversals, public calls from some investors to cut key management, and multiple government-led reviews of its contracts and conduct.
For shareholders, the suspension reflects a simple reality.
Until Corporate Travel can quantify the damage, restate three years of numbers and convince regulators and the ASX that it has reset its governance, the market can’t pass judgment.
The company will remain idling on the tarmac.
