De Vere Strays Off Course - Who Will Grasp The Thistle? - War Leaves Sol Meliá Fighting - NH Hoteles: Riding High In April, Shot Down In May - Orient-Express Reasonably Chuffed - Accor Names Its XI - Island-Hopping In The Middle East - Kempinski Resorts To The Adriatic - Iberostar Shines On Greece - Forte Fits The Bill For Travelodge - Is The Prince Ghana Buy A New Hotel? - April Wash-Out For Hilton - Are You Free In September?
De Vere Strays Off Course
Whether or not he will be around to see his green shoots turn into trees
the Daily Telegraph newspaper notes that the wheels have been set in motion for De Vere Group Chief Executive Paul Dermody's graceful exit
he will want to see a better performance from his company in the second half if his hopes for full year pre-tax profit of £37 million to £42 million are to be fulfilled. In its first half ending 30 March, De Vere saw pre-tax profit before exceptionals slip 5.4% to £15 million. Turnover was up, though, by 7.2% to £150.2 million, with the De Vere hotels contributing £86.2 million, an increase of 2.5% on the same period a year ago. The 21 De Vere hotels and the 14 Village hotels both saw RevPAR rise, by 1.0% to £56.48 and 3.2% to £40.86, respectively.
Who Will Grasp The Thistle?
The month of May opened with Thistle Hotels' reluctant submission to a £627 million takeover offer from its biggest shareholder, Singapore's BIL International. A few days on and the inevitable casualties of the tussle have dragged themselves from the battlefield. Thistle has parted company with Chief Executive Ian Burke and Chairman David Newbigging, and they are replaced, respectively, by BIL Chief Executive Arun Amarsi (who also takes the title Managing Director in his new role) and BIL Chairman Tan Sri Quek Leng Chan. However, the boardroom musical chairs may not yet be over, according to certain newspaper reports. Mr Quek now finds himself battling rival businessman Oei Hong Leong for control of BIL International itself. Thistle's new chairman responded to seeing his rival take his holding in BIL to 8.14% by raising his own stake from 26.05% to 28.87%.
War Leaves Sol Meliá Fighting
The uncertain times during the build-up to the war in Iraq were the chief cause of the 75.3% fall in net profit posted by Sol Meliá for its first quarter. A return of €2.7 million was also the result of Easter falling in April this year rather than in March as it did last. The company saw total revenue drop 8% to €209 million, and RevPAR across its portfolio slip 4.6%. Nevertheless, hope is on the horizon: Sol Meliá reports that bookings for May and June, particularly those in the UK and Germany, have rebounded. On a separate issue, the Spanish press reports that Sol Meliá is to ease its debt burden by selling nine hotels in Spain for a total target price of €120 million.
NH Hoteles: Riding High In April, Shot Down In May
Just over a fortnight ago NH Hoteles was basking in the glory of a 19.6% surge in revenue for the three months to 31 March, a pleasure derived in large part from the company's Astron Hotels chain. This week, NH Hoteles experienced the pain that ownership of that same chain can bring. As analysts at Morgan Stanley note, Astron's high level of fixed costs contributed to a 42.0% fall, to €23.6 million, in NH Hoteles' EBITDA for the same three-month period.
Orient-Express Reasonably Chuffed
It was the timing of Easter this year, rather than the Sars virus or the conflict in Iraq, which caused Orient-Express Hotels greatest concern. The company, which last month made the Hotel Ritz in Madrid hotel number 41 in its portfolio, recorded a net loss of US$2.6 million in its first-quarter ending 31 March. Total company revenue for the quarter rose 14.7% to US$61.6 million and worldwide RevPAR was up too, by 6.6% to US$162. Chairman James B. Sherwood pronounced himself satisfied with the results, while President Simon Sherwood said the company would not be providing earnings guidance for the time being, owing to the present uncertainty surrounding global travel.
Accor Names Its XI
Accor has confirmed the line-up of its team to take on all-comers in the tricky Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region from 1 July. André Martinez, who takes overall charge of the hotel division in the region, will marshal seven key players. In France, Bruno Coudry and Jean-Luc Motot together look after the Formule 1 and Etap brands; Jean-Paul Philippon has charge of Ibis; and Christian Achard takes care of Mercure and Novotel. Three men will be responsible for all of the brands in their allotted territories: Jean-Louis Claveau in Spain, Portugal and the Benelux countries, Michael Flaxman in the UK, Scandinavia, central and eastern Europe, and André Witschi in Germany. The management of the Sofitel brand in the EMEA region will be in the hands, until the end of the year, of Claude Moscheni; Agnès Bourguignon, who is under Mr Moscheni's guidance, takes special care of Sofitel in France. Daniel Vrancx has responsibility for the franchises of all brands throughout the EMEA region.
Island-Hopping In The Middle East
Rezidor SAS Hospitality has signed an agreement with Bahrain's national hotels company BSC to manage a set of 121 five-star apartments that has been added as an extension to the 246-room Diplomat Radisson SAS Hotel in the Bahraini capital Manama. The combination of hotel and apartments will be known as The Diplomat Radisson SAS Hotel and Executive Apartments. It is a short hop from Bahrain to Kuwait, where the government there plans to spend at least US$3.3 billion transforming Failaka Island in the Persian Gulf into a tourist resort. Also with money to spend in the region is Metropolitan Hotels International, which, fresh from officially inaugurating the 200-room Metropolitan Palace Hotel in the Saudi city of Mecca, announced that it would be spending US$800 million on hotel projects over the next three years.
Kempinski Resorts To The Adriatic
Kempinski Hotels & Resorts has a plan, which, if it succeeds, will see the German hotelier enter Croatia for the first time. Kempinski has its sights set on the resort of Opatija on the Adriatic coast and the two three-star hotels there owned by local company Liburnia Riviera Hoteli. Kempinski would like to convert the Hotel Kvarner-Amalia into the five-star Kempinski Kvarner and the Hotel Imperial into a 116-room, four-star property.
Iberostar Shines On Greece
Spain's Iberostar Hotels & Resorts has signed a franchise agreement that entitles it to get its hands on four hotels belonging to Cypriot operator Louis Hotels. The deal will see the Louis prefix replaced by Iberostar at each of the Louis Ledra Beach, in Paphos, Cyprus, the Louis Kerkyra Golf on the island of Corfu (where Iberostar has the fourth, unnamed hotel) and the Louis Plagos Beach on the Greek island of Zakynthos. These hotels will use their new names from 1 January 2004 and that summer Iberostar will take up the management of another three Louis hotels in Greece and one more in Cyprus.
Forte Fits The Bill For Travelodge
When Permira acquired the Travelodge chain from Compass Group last December, the former Forte headquarters building on High Holborn in London came as part of the deal. Now Permira is seeking permission to convert the building into a 186-room Travelodge. Elsewhere in the capital, the 163-room Hilton London Green Park has submitted to a multimillion pound renovation programme that should be finished by this autumn. Meanwhile, Choice Hotels Europe has graced the city of Leeds with a 132-room Sleep Inn. The £5.5 million property is the fifth hotel with that brand in the UK. And Jurys Doyle Hotel Group promised that the UK would see many more Jurys Inn hotels besides those already planned as it officially opened the 274-room Jurys Inn Newcastle.
Is The Prince Ghana Buy A New Hotel?
Saudi billionaire Prince Al Walid bin Talal bin Abdul Aziz, the Chairman of the Kingdom Holding Company, might, according to reports, buy a hotel for the Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts chain near the airport in Accra, the capital of the West African republic of Ghana. The prince apparently also expressed an interest in renovating another hotel in the city, the 151-room, four-star Ambassador Hotel. Africa has also witnessed the renaming of Corinthia Hotels International's first hotel in Libya. The 299-room, five-star property, which is located in the capital Tripoli, will henceforth be known as the Corinthia Bab Africa Hotel.
April Wash-Out For Hilton
As the calendar advanced from January to April, Hilton Group's RevPAR got progressively worse with each passing month. By 30 April, RevPAR in the hotel division was 9.7% lower than it was over the same period a year ago. Consequently, total group pre-tax profit over the four months was down 25% on last year's comparable. Despite this unpromising start, Hilton expects that RevPAR will return to growth from late summer onwards and that its full year performance can still fall broadly in line with analysts' expectations.
Are You Free In September?
Why is the International Hotel Conference already being hailed as the 'must attend' event of 2003? Could it be because it has a line-up of more than 70 distinguished speakers including our own Russell Kett, Managing Director of HVS International? Or perhaps it is the prospect of the 21 interactive sessions, or the 16 'round tables' at which experts from every region of the world will gather that appeals. One thing, however, is guaranteed: a relaxed atmosphere over the three days from 17-19 September at the Le Meridien Beach Plaza in Monte Carlo. For further details visit www.internationalhotelconference.com.
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