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2 August 2016 – Expansión
The hotel chain earned €45 million during the six months to June and reduced its net debt by €213 million.
The hotel chain Meliá, which will join the Ibex next week, replacing FCC, doubled its profits during the first half of the year, to €45 million. The company has highlighted that the 123% improvement in net profit has been generated even without the sale of any assets.
The company owned by the Escarrer family increased its average revenue per room (RevPAR) by 9.4% – or by 14.2% if we include the assets under management in its portfolio – and whereby recorded six years of consecutive quarterly increases.
The company closed the first half of the year with operating income of €856 million, 0.4% lower than in the same period in 2015. If we strip out the effect of gains from the sale of assets last year, operating income increased by 5.7%.
By geographic region, RevPAR in America was lower in H1 2016 than in H1 2015, which the company explains was due to the impact of the depreciation in the Canadian dollar, the economic deceleration in Brazil and Argentina, changes in reservations due to the Zika virus and the good temperature in the USA and Canada, the main issuing markets. By contrast, the company highlighted the strong performance of hotels in the Mediterranean and Caribbean, with a RevPAR increae of 30.9%.
In terms of the financial situation, Meliá decreased its net debt by €213 million during the first six months of the year, bringing it down to €556 million at the end of June, thanks primarily to the early conversion of a convertible bond issued in 2013.
The Vice-President and CEO of Meliá, Gabriel Escarrer Jaume, stated that the repositioning of its hotels, investment in assets and strategic markets, as well as financial strengthening have allowed the group to return to the Ibex thirteen years later.
The company is “optimistic” about the performance of its hotel complexes during the third quarter and its urban hotels during the second half of the year. In the same way, it forecasts a favourable “albeit unequal” performance across its “European hotels”, influenced by the world environment, especially France, in the face of the heightened terrorist threat. In terms of America, the firm expects a boost with the opening of several new hotels: Innside New York Nomad, ME Miami and Meliá Braco Village (Jamaica).
At a conference with analysts, the company made reference to Brexit explaining that it does not expect any impact in the short term, given that Britons have already booked their holidays for 2016, and some have even booked for next year.
Original story: Expansión
Translation: Carmel Drake