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(Alliance News) - Safestay PLC on Monday said its annual trading was "comfortably" in line with market expectations.
The London-based city centre hostels operator expects sales for 2023 to be GBP22.5 million, up 18% from GBP19.1 million a year ago.
Analyst consensus forecasts sales of GBP21.2 million and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of GBP6.7 million. This would be a 14% increase from Safestay's Ebitda of GBP5.9 million in 2022.
Occupancy rose to 71%, Safestay said, from 63% in 2022, while its average bed rate for the year was maintained at GBP23.74, compared to GBP23.63 the previous year.
The hostel operator also said that forward bookings at January 1 grew twofold to GBP3.9 million from GBP1.9 million at the beginning of 2023.
Chair Larry Lipman commented: "This performance demonstrates that demand for our product has come back stronger than before the pandemic, and represents an opportunity for Safestay to grow in this exciting market. Our objective is to further build the business, and we are very focused on doing so through a careful mix of organic and acquisition led growth."
On Monday, Safestay also announced that it has refinanced its existing borrowings into a single GBP16 million term loan and added a new GBP2.5 million revolving credit facility to "support future growth plans."
Lipman added: "We are pleased to have completed this refinancing, which increases the group's overall funding capacity, providing additional flexibility and enabling additional investment into the development and growth of our business. We are grateful to HSBC who continues to be a long-term and strong supporter of Safestay."
Shares in Safestay were up 0.1% at 23.02 pence each in London on Monday afternoon.
By Sabrina Penty, Alliance News reporter
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