FTSE 250 hotels group Millennium & Copthorne booked in a steady underlying first-quarter trading update, though the strength of sterling hit the bottom line hard. Revenue was down 0.3% to £175.3m, but up 5.9% on a constant currency basis, with profit before tax falling 15.5% to £20.1m. The currency headwinds dragged earnings per share down 47.4% to 2.0p.Group revenue per available room (RevPAR) was up 2.5% on constant currencies and down 3.2% at the statutory level.Chairman Kwek Leng Beng said: "We expect trading conditions to be influenced by increasing social and political uncertainties affecting key Asian economies, which have already had an impact on exchange rates. "Foreign exchange movements cannot be easily quantified but have the potential to impact results, when translating into sterling." He pointed to good progress on strategic growth initiatives, including completion of The Chelsea Harbour Hotel acquisition. The acquisition of Novotel Times Square, New York is scheduled to complete in June 2014. Subject to conditions being met, the acquisition of Boscolo Palace Roma is scheduled to complete in the third quarter of 2014.Construction of M&C's new hotel in Tokyo's Ginza district is expected to complete before the end of 2014 and the hotel is expected to open during the first quarter of 2015."With Europe and US showing signs of increasing stability, we remain cautiously optimistic about the rest of the year," Kwek said.Current trading into the second quarter has started well, with constant currency RevPar of 4% for the four weeks to end April.Broker Panmure Gordon retained its 'hold' recommendation, "given the uncertainty over forecasts with volatile Asian trading and the refurbishment programme underway which is likely to continue to disrupt trading".Shares in the company were up 0.18% to 556p at 09:45 on Thursday.OH