Oct 30 (Reuters) - Millennium & Copthorne Hotels Plc's third-quarter profit rose 6.6 percent as an increase inglobal business travel drove occupancy and room rates.
Pretax profit rose to 50.2 million pounds in the quarterended Sept. 30 from 47.1 million pounds a year earlier.
Revenue at the company, which operates the Millennium, GrandMillennium, Copthorne and Kingsgate hotels, rose 6.2 percent to215.9 million pounds ($345.1 million).
Revenue per available room (RevPAR), a metric of hotelhealth calculated by multiplying average daily room rate byoccupancy rate, rose 5.5 percent to 77.7 million pounds.
The increase in travel due to a recovering economy in theUnited Kingdom and the United States has resulted in tightsupply of hotel rooms and higher occupancy, allowing hoteliersto raise rates.
M&C said group RevPAR rose 6.8 percent in the first threeweeks of trading in the current quarter on a constant currencybasis, with RevPAR up 4.5 percent in New York and 3.3 percent upin London. Singapore RevPAR fell by 4.2 percent during theperiod.
Millennium & Copthorne (M&C) is majority owned by Kwek LengBeng's Singapore-based property company City Developments Ltd and has a big presence in Singapore, London and NewYork.
Shares in the company were down 1 percent at 560.5 pence inthin early trading on the London Stock Exchange. ($1 = 0.6255 British pound) (Reporting by Aastha Agnihotri in Bangalore)
