EZH.L Regulatory News (EZH)

24 March 2017

easyHotel plc

("easyHotel" or "the Group")

Trading Update

easyHotel, the owner, developer, operator and franchisor of "super budget" branded hotels, provides a trading update for the five months to 28 February 2017.

Trading

Trading for the five months ended 28 February 2017 was slightly above the Board's expectations.Owned hotels once again materially outperformed their competitive set (source: STR Global) during the period, whilst the overall UK hotel market improved year on year.

This performance was mainly driven by strong owned hotel like-for-like revenue growth of 19% for the five months to 28 February 2017 compared with the same period last year, as the Group continues to benefit from the revenue strategy announced in December 2015.

New hotel openings

Three "new look" hotels opened during the first five months of the financial year - Brussels, Amsterdam Arena and Birmingham - and all have traded exceptionally strongly and are expected to reach maturity ahead of budget.easyHotel's total committed development projects currently have 1,748 rooms under development, 716 of which are owned and 1,032 are being developed by franchise partners. 

Owned hotel development pipeline

· New hotel projects under construction in Barcelona (204 rooms) and Ipswich (94 rooms) are progressing well.

· Manchester (115 rooms) and Liverpool (78 rooms) are now expected to open during the summer as we take advantage of the extension to the construction programme to improve on the layout and design of the two city centre hotels.

· Since announcing a long leasehold property in Sheffield on 20 December 2016, for conversion into a 131 room hotel, planning permission has been obtained and the completion of the purchase is expected in the coming weeks.

· On 22 December 2016, a further long leasehold project was added to the development pipeline in Leeds for conversion into a 94-room hotel, subject to planning permission.

· Both Sheffield and Leeds are expected to open in 2018.

· The Board continues to evaluate further acquisitions.

Franchised hotel development pipeline

· Two further franchise hotel projects have been announced during the period - a 54-room hotel in Reading (November 2016) and an 81-room hotel in Belfast, the first in Northern Ireland (January 2017). Both hotels are expected to open in early 2018.

Old Street Planning Appeal

The appeal for the retrospective planning permission relating to 78 of the 162 rooms at the Group's Old Street Hotel (80 Old Street, London) was heard on 21 March 2017. A decision is expected shortly.

Guy Parsons, Chief Executive Officer, commented:

"Trading in the first five months of financial year 2016/17 was slightly ahead of the Board's expectations, with like for like revenue growth of 19%, as owned hotels continued to benefit from our revenue management strategy.The roll out of the new booking engine (Hetras) and yield management system (Duetto) are on schedule and will support our positive trading momentum. The systems will be rolled out to the whole network by the end of the current financial year.We remain on track to open eight new hotels, four owned and four franchised, in the current year. We are actively evaluating a number of interesting opportunities which potentially meet our site criteria of location and returns.

The Board remains confident that it shall 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."

Enquiries:

Notes to Editors:

easyHotel is the owner, developer, operator and franchisor of branded hotels. Its strategy is to target the "super budget" segment of the hotel industry by marketing "clean, comfortable and safe" hotel rooms to its customers.

Operating hotels

easyHotel's four owned hotels currently comprise 476 rooms, and it has a further 19 franchised hotels with 1,643 rooms. 

Owned hotels:

Old Street (London), Glasgow, Croydon, Birmingham

Franchise locations:

Belgium (Brussels), Bulgaria (Sofia), Germany (Berlin, Frankfurt), Hungary (Budapest), The Netherlands (Amsterdam, Amsterdam-Zaandam, Rotterdam, The Hague), Switzerland (Basel, Zurich), UAE (Dubai), United Kingdom (Edinburgh, London Heathrow, Central London, Luton).

Hotel development pipeline

The Company's committed development pipeline of owned and franchised hotels currently consists of:

Owned hotels:

United Kingdom (Liverpool, Manchester, Ipswich, Sheffield), Spain (Barcelona)

Subject to planning consent: United Kingdom (Leeds)

Franchise hotels:

UAE (Dubai), Germany (Bernkastel-Kues), Portugal (Lisbon), Turkey (Istanbul), United Kingdom (Belfast, Reading)

Website: www.easyHotel.com 

-ends-