LONDON (Alliance News) - easyHotel PLC on Tuesday reported lower profit in the first half of its financial year due to pre-opening costs it booked, but revenue was boosted by its owned hotel portfolio.
The budget hotel operator said its pretax profit in the six months ended March 31 fell to GBP100,000 from GBP400,000 in the first half of the prior year, due to pre-opening costs related to its increased development pipeline, depreciation, amortisation and share-based payments.
Revenue, however, grew to GBP2.6 million from GBP2.3 million, slightly ahead of the board's expectations, as total system sales rose by 10% to GBP9.7 million from GBP8.8 million and like-for-like revenue for owned hotels increased by 8%.
"This momentum has continued into the beginning of the second half, traditionally the busiest trading months of the year for hoteliers, and full year trading is on track to meet the board's expectations," Chief Executive Guy Parsons said in a statement.
easyHotel plans to add 1,000 more rooms to its owned and franchise network over the next two years.
"The board remains confident that it can secure properties in major and regional UK cities as well as key European gateway cities whilst leveraging the strong brand to increase easyHotel's presence in the growing branded super budget hotel segment," Parsons added.
easyHotel will pay an interim dividend of 0.11 pence per share, having not paid an interim dividend the year before.
Shares in easyHotel were trading flat at 99.00 pence on Tuesday morning.
By Karolina Kaminska; karolinakaminska@alliancenews.com @KarolinaAllNews
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