Millennium & Copthorne defies tough market with rise in profit
MILLENNIUM & Copthorne (M&C) Hotels posted a six per cent rise in third quarter profits yesterday, boosted by sales from recently refurbished hotels.
The company, which owns over 100 sites including hotels at Chelsea football club’s Stamford Bridge, reported pre-tax profits of £40.4m and said revenue per available room (revpar) rose 3.4 per cent in the three months to 30 September.
Occupancy also improved to 76.5 per cent compared with 73.4 per cent the same time last year.
M&C makes about half of its profit in Asia, where it has suffered from a fall in the number of Japanese customers visiting Seoul and slower trading in Beijing.
Revpar in the region fell 4.2 per cent to £71.74m in the third quarter while revpar in Singapore, another large market, declined by 8.3 per cent.
The group also announced a conditional agreement to sell one of its shopping centres in the country, King’s Tanglin Shopping Pte, without disclosing details of the deal.
Meanwhile revpar fell by 4.3 per cent in Europe, which M&C blamed on tough comparatives after the strong performance in London during the Olympic Games last year.