18th Apr 2016 08:19
LONDON (Alliance News) - Action Hotels PLC said Monday its revenue rose 16% in 2015, as the company opened new hotels in Bahrain and the UAE emirate of Sharjah, and completed its first acquisition of an existing operational hotel.
Action Hotels, which owns three and four-star hotels in the Middle East and Australia, reported revenue of USD43.5 million for the year ended December 31, up from USD37.6 million the year earlier, boosting pretax profit to USD3.0 million from USD2.2 million.
Action Hotels proposed a final dividend of 1.47 pence per share, taking its full-year dividend to 2.21p per share, from 2.17p a year earlier.
The hotel group said it has opened two new hotels over the year, the ibis Seef Bahrain and the Premier Inn Sharjah, in the United Arab Emirates, as well as purchasing the ibis Styles Brisbane Elizabeth Street in Australia. This increased its operational rooms by 30% to 1,928.
Action Hotels said it has a committed and fully funded pipeline of a further six hotels plus three plots of investment land, which means its total room count will be a minimum of 2,650 by 2018.
The hotel group said its focus remains the expansion of its hotel portfolio across the Gulf Cooperation Council in the Middle East, as "a growing middle class is driving demand for affordable, quality, value for money hotel accommodation across the region".
The group added it has seen a "positive start to the year", with revenue up 14% over the same period last year, and said its new hotels were performing well.
Since the year-end, Action Hotels said it completed the construction of Tulip Inn Ras Al Khaimah in the UAE, which it expects to open "imminently", and re-opened its 2015 acquisition, the ibis Styles Brisbane Elizabeth Street, in March.
"Our focus continues to be the delivery of our pipeline of hotels on time and on budget. We expect to deliver a further three hotels this year, taking the total for 2016 to five new hotels in one year," said Chief Executive Alain Debare.
Shares in Action Hotels were up 6.8% at 55.00p on Monday morning.
By Hannah Boland; [email protected]; @Hannaheboland
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