Chinese conglomerate Fosun has snapped up the Thomas Cook brand for £11 million ($14.2 million), weeks after the renowned British travel group went bust and left hundreds of thousands of holidaymakers stranded abroad.

Thomas Cook's demise in September sparked 22,000 job losses worldwide and triggered Britain's biggest repatriation since World War II, with the government paying to fly home 140,000 tourists.

The 178-year-old British institution declared bankruptcy in September after an attempt to secure $250 million from private investors fell through.

Hong Kong-listed Fosun, which was already the biggest shareholder in Thomas Cook and also owns France-based resort giant Club Med, had backed out of the eleventh hour deal to keep the debt-plagued company afloat.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2019