Corporate Travel Management Ltd (ASX: CTD) shares returned to the ASX on Thursday after 13 months in suspension. The reopening was every bit as brutal as feared.
The stock last traded at $16.07 before the halt began in August 2025.
It reopened near $3 and fell away from there.
That represents a decline of roughly 80% for a business that carried a $2.2 billion market capitalisation prior to its trading pause.
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Why Corporate Travel Management shares were suspended at all
In essence, Corporate Travel Management could not lodge audited accounts while an investigation into its billing practices ran its course.
At the centre of it was more than $250 million of client overcharging, including roughly £80 million tied to UK government contracts.
The ASX gave the company until 31 August to file or lose its listing altogether.
It filed on 2 September and resumed trading the following day.
What the delayed accounts eventually showed
FY25 was a horrible year for Corporate Travel Management.
The company reported a statutory loss of $348.5 million, driven by $357.7 million of goodwill impairments spread across Europe, Australia, and North America.
However, FY26 was different.
In FY26, revenue and other income rose 4% to $669.9 million while underlying EBITDA climbed 36% to $113.6 million.
Statutory net profit after tax reached $17.7 million, a swing of more than $366 million in twelve months.
Total transaction value hit $9.8 billion across 18.3 million transactions, with volumes up 13%.
Chief executive Ana Pedersen said the following of the results:
While our earnings remain below historical levels and there is still work to do, FY26 demonstrates meaningful progress in stabilising the business, strengthening our foundations and positioning CTM for growth.
The liability still on the balance sheet
Despite this positive momentum, investors may want to remain cautious. Customer-related liability stood at $260 million at 30 June 2025 and was forecast at $234 million a year later.
Roughly 78% of refunds are agreed or close to final, leaving about $55 million still to remediate.
Cash on hand is $106.9 million, supported by a $175 million committed facility from PEP Credit.
Dividends remain suspended, and the accounts carry a modified audit opinion.
These details will together keep a lot of institutional money out of Corporate Travel Management shares for now.
One piece of good news
The Department of Finance completed an independent review of the company's Commonwealth travel arrangements on 31 August.
In its findings, it found no evidence of widespread or systemic overcharging on Australian Government contracts.
That is important because government work represents a meaningful slice of the revenue base.
Client retention held up elsewhere, too.
The company secured $669 million of new business wins and $1.5 billion of re-tenders and renewals across FY26.
What has to go right for Corporate Travel Management shares
Three things need to go right for Corporate Travel Management shares for the company to recover.
Firstly, the remediation has to finish without the liability growing again.
Trading has to stabilise, and early FY27 is not encouraging on that front. July revenue came in near $53.3 million against $58.3 million in the same month last year.
The company also needs a clean audit opinion, and further guidance is not due until the annual general meeting in November.
Foolish takeaway
Corporate Travel Management shares are now priced as a distressed turnaround stock.
The company's FY26 results show an operating company that can still produce strong operational numbers.
However, what the results do not show is a settled balance sheet or a stable shareholder register.
Anyone buying here is betting that everything bad has now been disclosed.
I would want to see the FY27 accounts and an unqualified audit opinion before treating this stock as anything other than pure speculation.
