Transition, expansion pays off for easyHotel

(ShareCast News) - Stelios' charge into the hotel sector paid off for another year on Wednesday, with easyHotel reporting a healthy boost to its earnings.The AIM-listed budget accommodation chain, known for its garish orange locations, saw total system sales increase by 15% in the year to 30 September to £19.95m.Profit before tax was up 38% to £0.79m, and cash from operations more than doubled to £3.39m (£1.11m in 2014.)The year marked a period of transition and expansion for the chain, with a new chief executive officer and chief financial officer appointed and the brand now operating 1,880 rooms in eight countries. Serial entrepreneur Stelios Haji-Ioannou started the chain with a single hotel in central London 10 years ago.Three-hundred-and-ninety of those are owned by the company following the opening of a new hotel in Croydon, with the rest franchised. New sites were also purchased in Manchester and Liverpool, with both hotels scheduled to open in the 2016-17 financial year."The scale of opportunity we have in the UK and Europe is larger than was previously thought", said CEO Guy Parsons, who was appointed to the role in August."Through a mix of owned and franchised hotels and an accelerated pace of openings, I believe that we have the opportunity to establish ourselves as the leading branded super budger hotel chain and create significant value for shareholders and stakeholders."Since the end of the financial year, the company secured agreements for the development of new franchised hotels in the UAE, Oman and Brussels over the next few years.EasyHotel will pay a maiden final divident of 0.33p per share.