M&C's Q3 net profit up on newly acquired and refurbished hotels

MILLENNIUM & Copthorne Hotels (M&C) plc reported on Thursday that its net profit for the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2014, rose to 35.5 million pounds, from 32.1 million pounds a year ago.

Earnings per share was 10.9 pence, up from 9.9 pence.

Revenue rose by 6.2 per cent to 215.9 million pounds from 203.3 million pounds a year ago.

Revenue per available room (RevPAR), a performance metric in the hotel industry, was 77.71 million pounds, compared to 73.68 million pounds a year ago.

Kwek Leng Beng, the chairman of the hotel group, said: "Our newly acquired hotels contributed to revenue and profit in the third quarter, together with the return of refurbished rooms to inventory and stronger trading in regional US and New Zealand.

"Together, these factors helped to improve performance for the group as a whole, despite challenges and economic uncertainties in some of our key markets and the continuing negative impact on reported currency results of a strong pound sterling."

Occupancy grew to 78.3 per cent from 76.5 per cent a year ago, while the average room rate rose to 99.26 pounds from 96.35 pounds a year ago.

Operating profit in the third quarter went up by 12.2 per cent to 49.5 million pound from 44.1 million a year ago, due to higher revenue from both newly acquired and refurbished hotels.

The group's Singapore hotels delivered a stronger performance in the third quarter; hotel revenues increased by 4 per cent to 33.4 million pounds from 32.1 million a year ago due to higher non-room income.

Singapore RevPAR rose 0.8 per cent during the quarter to 89.05 pounds, compared to 88.34 pounds a year ago, with lower room rates offsetting a 5.1 percentage point increase in occupancy to 91.5 per cent from 86.4 per cent.

The group said its financial position remained strong and its management's trading expectations for 2014 remained unchanged.