Millennium & Copthorne Hotels (M&C), the London-listed hotel arm of City Developments Ltd (CDL), has achieved a 91.6 percent growth in net profit to £47.9 million in the second quarter of this year.
The company said the strong results can be attributed to the £17.4 million gain from the sale and leaseback of Singapore’s Studio M hotel to CDL Hospitality Trusts (CDLHT), as well as the improved trading conditions of its hotels in Singapore, London and New York.
M&C noted that it has completed the divestment of the plot next to Grand Millennium Kuala Lumpur and expects to book a total pretax profit of around RM170.4 million in the third quarter.
Overall revenue per available room (RevPAR) in Q2 climbed 6.3 percent over the same period a year ago, primarily driven by an increase in average room rate. RevPAR in its Singapore hotels rose 12.5 percent and surged 16 percent and 8.3 percent respectively in London and New York. In addition, Q2 group revenue also increased 3.2 percent to £196.1 million.
For the first half of 2011, M&C’s net profit jumped 66.7 percent to £62 million, while net debt was pared to £81.9 million as of 30 June 2011, from £165.7 million on 31 December 2010.
M&C’s RevPAR in H1 improved 5.5 percent. RevPAR for Singapore, London and New York climbed 9.6 percent, 13.1 percent and 6.6 percent respectively.
Meanwhile, Kwek Leng Beng, Chairman of M&C, said that performance was not uniform across the group, as difficult trading conditions can be seen in many parts of the world.
“Away from the major +gateway cities, RevPAR performance declined in regional UK – mainly as a result of growth in the supply of competitors’ hotel rooms – and in Australasia, which continues to suffer from the effects of the Christchurch earthquake. The US market was affected by extreme weather conditions in the early part of the year, while the Japanese earthquake and tsunami impacted a number of Asian and New Zealand destinations during the first half, including Taipei and Seoul.”
M&C’s H1 revenue climbed 5.6 percent to £370.3 million, while net profit rose 66.7 percent to £62 million.
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