Millennium & Copthorne's profit up on higher occupancy, room rates

[LONDON] Millennium & Copthorne Hotels Plc's third-quarter profit rose 6.6 per cent as an increase in global business travel drove occupancy and room rates.

Pretax profit rose to 50.2 million pounds in the quarter ended Sept. 30 from 47.1 million pounds a year earlier.

Revenue at the company, which operates the Millennium, Grand Millennium, Copthorne and Kingsgate hotels, rose 6.2 per cent to 215.9 million pounds (US$345.1 million).

Revenue per available room (RevPAR), a metric of hotel health calculated by multiplying average daily room rate by occupancy rate, rose 5.5 per cent to 77.7 million pounds.

The increase in travel due to a recovering economy in the United Kingdom and the United States has resulted in tight supply of hotel rooms and higher occupancy, allowing hoteliers to raise rates.

M&C said group RevPAR rose 6.8 per cent in the first three weeks of trading in the current quarter on a constant currency basis, with RevPAR up 4.5 per cent in New York and 3.3 per cent up in London. Singapore RevPAR fell by 4.2 per cent during the period.

Millennium & Copthorne (M&C) is majority owned by Kwek Leng Beng's Singapore-based property company City Developments Ltd and has a big presence in Singapore, London and New York.

Shares in the company were down one per cent at 560.5 pence in thin early trading on the London Stock Exchange.

REUTERS