CDL unit M&C axes 8% of global team, furloughs about 30% of employees

Singapore

MILLENNIUM & Copthorne (M&C) Hotels has reduced its global headcount by 8 per cent and furloughed another 30 per cent of staff in its owned-and-managed hotel portfolio, as the Covid-19 pandemic and governmental restriction measures introduced across most jurisdictions have hit its business.

Excluding franchise hotels, M&C's global staff had been around 8,000 before the reductions.

Additionally, senior management and executives in M&C have, since April 1, accepted salary cuts reduction of up to 30 per cent, depending on their seniority.

This comes as the global hospitality sector has been hard-hit by Covid-19, with travel restrictions, trip cancellations, postponement of major events and a steep reduction in food and beverage spend, said City Developments Limited (CDL) in a statement on Wednesday.

About half of M&C's global hotel portfolio - excluding hotels operated under the M&C franchise model - have been closed to date, but the group intends to end the furlough arrangements when appropriate and to get its employees back to their roles.

The current terms of such furlough arrangements are in accordance with the relevant guidelines issued by local governments.

As for staff that were laid off, they have received payments in accordance with contractual and statutory requirements, the statement said.

M&C has taken and will continue to take certain steps to implement a series of business-optimisation and cost-control initiatives to minimise operating expenses, it added.

The M&C head office has been temporarily closed in line with the requirements of the UK government, with employees not subject to furlough working remotely.

Last year, CDL took M&C private and the British company was subsequently delisted from the London Stock Exchange.

M&C has more than 145 hotels across some 80 locations worldwide, but its latest announcement refers only to the more than 60 hotels it owns and manages, and excludes those operated under the M&C franchise model.