PPHE Hotels to open 1,000 new rooms this year

10th Mar 2016 16:37

(ShareCast News) - Luxury hotel operator PPHE Hotels was in a strong position on Thursday, publishing its final results for the 2015 calendar year as it prepared to open more than 1,000 new rooms.The AIM-traded company reported an 11.8% increase in revenue to €302.5m. On a constant currency basis, revenue rose 4.4% to €282.3m.PPHE's reported EBITSA was up 16.9% to €110.9m, while on a constant currency basis it was up 9.1%. Its reported EBITDA margin was 36.6%, up 150 basis points, and driven by a higher average room rate and tight cost control.Normalised profit before tax increased 25.5% to €41.2m, while normalised earnings per share improved to 99 euro cents, from 79 cents in 2014. On a reported basis, profit before tax declined to €38.8m from €41.6m, and basic and diluted earnings per share were 97 euro cents, down from €1 in 2014.PPHE's board proposed a final dividend of 10p per share, taking 2015's total dividend to 20p, a 5.3% increase in 2014."We are pleased to report another year of progress with double digit growth in revenue, normalised profit and normalised earnings per share," said president and chief executive Boris Ivesha."Excellent progress was also made with the various projects in our development pipeline," he added.Ivesha said trading in the year to date was in line with the board's expectations in all markets, and described 2016 as a 'tremendously exciting' one for the group.PPHE was opening three new hotels in the current year, and relaunching an extended and remodeled Park Plaza Riverbank London property, adding 1,067 rooms to the portfolio. Nine hundred of the new rooms would be in the capital."We will also continue to progress the various renovation projects to ensure that our hotels continue to improve on their strong market position, whilst making further progress in preparations for the two new art'otels planned for London," Ivesha explained.