July 29, 2008 – Millennium & Copthorne Hotels plc (M&C) will celebrate its newest hotel opening
in Phuket on 29 July 2008. The 421-room Millennium Resort Patong Phuket joins M&C’s growing
number of new hotel openings this year.
The resort hotel is the first to be opened by an international hotel group in Phuket since the
devastating tsunami in 2004. It is also the first property opened by a Singapore-owned hotel group in Phuket in recent years.
London-listed M&C, in which Hong Leong Group Singapore has a majority stake through its
property arm City Developments Ltd (CDL), is Singapore’s largest hotel group with a portfolio of more than 110 hotels in 18 countries with nearly 35,0000 rooms.
....................
The opening of the Phuket property is the latest in a stream of hotel openings by M&C in
Asia and the Middle East. These include the Copthorne Hotel Qingdao (May), Grand Millennium Beijing(April), Millennium Harbourview Hotel Xiamen (January), the Grand Millennium SukhumvitBangkok (November 2007) and the Grand Millennium Kuala Lumpur (September 2007).
Scheduled to open in late 2008 or early 2009 are two more hotels in China - Millennium Wuxi and Millennium Chengdu.
In April, M&C also announced a joint venture with Indian group Rakindo to build 20 to 30 branded hip business class hotels in India, the first of which will open in 2009 in Chennai.
M&C will also open a hotel under this business class hotel brand in Singapore’s trendy
dining and nightspot area of Mohamed Sultan Road in 2009.
In the Middle East, M&C recently opened two new properties in Dubai and one in Kuwait under management contracts, and announced the signing of a further seven management contracts in the United Arab Emirates and one in Dubai.
First half
· Revenue growth of 2.2% to £338.4m; Hotel revenue growth of 4.9% to £334.5m
· Group RevPAR# up by 6.0% to £54.91; Group RevPAR# up by 8.3% to £54.91
· Hotel gross operating profit up 9.8% to £126.0m (2007: £114.8m) and gross operating margin improved 0.8 percentage points to 37.7% (2007: 36.9%)
· Property operations recorded a loss of £0.2m compared with a £4.5m profit in 2007
· Headline operating profit up 6.1% to £67.6m (2007: £63.7m) ²
· Profit before tax up 9.2% to £60.3m; Headline profit before tax up 9.2% to £58.4m (2007: £53.5m) ²
· Basic earnings per share down 24.4% to 13.6p (2007: 18.0p); Headline earnings per share up 13.2% to 12.9p (2007:11.4p)3
· Interim dividend of 2.08p maintained
· Interest cover was 13.7 times, with gearing down to 17.7% from 18.3%
· Opened three hotels in China and four hotels in the Middle East
Commenting today, Mr Kwek Leng Beng, Chairman said:
“Our half year 2008 results are in line with the Board’s expectations. Excluding property operations in Australasia where there is a slowdown in general market conditions, the Group profit before tax increased by 17.1%.
Within the hotel operations, strong performance in Singapore, New York and London was offset by slower growth in Regional UK and New Zealand and the impact of refurbishing our hotels in Boston and Chicago.
In particular, Singapore has experienced healthy growth with a RevPAR increase of 33.3% over last year. Going forward, we note that the rate of growth has slowed in Asia in June and July 2008. In this uncertain economic environment, it is imperative that the Group remains ever more vigilant in controlling costs and be able to react quickly to the changing market conditions. Meanwhile, the RevPAR growth trend of the second quarter has continued into the third quarter with RevPAR up by 6.7% in the month of July.â€
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 6 guests