Millennium & Copthorne sees London RevPAR and profits surge

In a financial update released earlier today, the 110-strong Group also saw revenue per available room (RevPAR) grow by 6 per cent to £59.17. Like-for-like RevPAR in London was up 7 per cent to £82.96.

"With a strong balance sheet and gearing approaching zero, we are in a good position, both to continue investing in our property portfolio to improve returns and to grow the portfolio when we identify attractive strategic investment opportunities,” said M&C’s chairman Kwek Leng Beng.

“We have been actively seeking such opportunities since the second half of last year, but vendors' price expectations in key gateway cities are still too high.

"Looking forward, we expect continuing healthy progress in London, Singapore and certain other Asian destinations and we are focusing on improving performance at our US properties.”

The increase in RevPAR in London was driven by a 2.8 per cent rise in rates, to £107.88 (2011: £104.95) and an increase in occupancy of 3 percentage points to 76.9 per cent (2011: 73.9 per cent). RevPAR increases were experienced in all hotels in the capital, with the exception of Knightsbridge which is in the process of a shift into a higher yielding market segment. 

Outside of London remains a challenge for the Group, with RevPAR falling by 3.3 per cent to £37.16 (2011: £38.42). This was despite strong double digit RevPAR growth in Manchester and Aberdeen. Most hotels saw a reduction in RevPAR, particularly the two Gatwick hotels and Newcastle.  Average rate fell by 1.9 per cent to £58.67 (2011: £59.83) and occupancy decreased by 0.9 percentage points to 63.3 per cent (2011: 64.2%).