International Hotel Investments plc - Full-Year Results

On 22 February, Island Hotels Group Holdings plc published its financial statements for the year ended 31 October 2012.

Performance

During the period under review, the Group incurred a loss of €0.99 million compared to the €0.24 million loss reported with respect to the previous financial year. The higher loss figure is due to the 11.8% increase in operating expenses to €27.66 million which offset the 8.9% growth in revenue to €32.9 million.

In their review, the Directors explained that the Group continued to experience difficulties in its timeshare product with most sales being executed on a trade-in basis with only the increases in value of the upgraded sales taken to profit. Moreover, hotel occupancy was flat despite the better-than-expected tourist arrivals to Malta.

Dividend

Given the loss incurred during the period under review, the Directors did not recommend the payment of a dividend.

Outlook

The Directors expect business conditions for the Group to remain challenging. In this respect, the Directors believe that the most critical objective in the forthcoming year will be that of maintaining a healthy level of timeshare sales at a more efficient profit ratio.

On the other hand, the Directors expect its retail and contract catering business to further improve its performance in the coming years once the initial investments in the new ventures takes effect. In the meantime, the Group has also undertaken an overhaul of certain equipment to benefit from cost savings on energy bills.

On a longer-term perspective, the Group is planning to commence the development of the Oasis project (ex-Hal Ferh site) as well as the upgrade of its Coastline Hotel and Radisson BLU Hotel. However, these projects are dependent on the Group’s ability to raise fresh equity capital which is also needed to reduce some of the Group’s debt. In this respect, the Directors revealed the challenges being faced to source new equity funding.

Download

Island Hotels Group Holdings plc – Financial Statements for the year ended 31 October 2012