Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/464575
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 18 FEBRUARY 2015 11 Business Today Corinthia Hotels, owned and oper- ated by International Hotel Invest- ments p.l.c. (IHI), registered a record performance in 2014, excluding its Tripoli and St Petersburg operations where force majeure situations pre- vailed during the year. IHI reported a 34% increase in gross operating profit (GOP) at its wholly owned hotels for 2014, excluding the Tripoli and St Petersburg hotels. Equally, the operating performance at the Corinthia in London – where IHI owns 50% - continued to progress with the hotel establishing itself at the forefront of London's luxury hotel market. The positive performance of these hotels went a long way towards mitigating a downturn in business at the Tripoli and St Petersburg hotels, although these hotels' respective commercial centres continued to generate substantial rental income from retail and office commercial tenants. For the year under review, IHI is anticipating a consolidated GOP from hotel operations of €36.2 million and income from rent at the Tripoli and St Petersburg commercial centres amounting to €9.4 million. The unaudited EBITDA for 2014 is expected to reach some €34 million and this includes IHI's 50% share of the London Hotel. "Reduced dependence on any one jurisdiction to achieve a balanced geographic spread of business and revenue is providing financial resilience, despite force majeure in one or another of its hotel investment jurisdictions," IHI said. IHI chairman Alfred Pisani described the group's performance in 2014 as "outstanding even if achieved in the face of adversity presented by force majeure situations". "IHI is facing 2015 with confidence. Our business as a developer and operator of hotels and real estate has moved on, and our dependence on any single hotel operation is now marginal. The outlook for profits for 2015 at all our hotels, except those operating in force majeure situations, remains positive. The company remains focused on reaching its targets for 2015 including the repayment of all its funding commitments, which remain well within industry parameters for debt-service cover ratios." In 2009, 66% of the contribution to profit was generated by the Corinthia Hotel in Tripoli and its adjoining commercial centre. By 2014, IHI had shifted its profit mix to a model where not one of its businesses contributed more than 17% of its EBITDA. The company's 50% share in the Corinthia Hotel London registered the largest contribution to profits, a remarkable achievement which underlines the Company's successful strategy to balance its income streams by adding stable investment jurisdictions to its portfolio. The company said the tragic loss of life at its hotel in Tripoli, which was attacked by suicide bombers affiliated with the Islamic State, was countered by the acts of courage of Corinthia's personnel who lived through the unfolding events with a bold sense of calmness that saved many lives. IHI said that it is now focused on repairing the limited damage at the hotel. The adjoining commercial centre continues to remain tenanted and generating rental income. In 2014, the St Petersburg operation registered a downturn in profits due to various factors beyond the company's control, including the collapse in the price of oil and the devaluation of the Rouble. The Rouble to Euro rate has devalued from a rate in the 40s at the start of 2014 to one in the high 70s by year- end. The volume of business at the hotel remains the same as at pre-crisis levels – in terms of occupancies and room rates as quoted in Roubles – but the Euro equivalent of these rates has now been hit hard by the devaluation. "Russian travellers have always constituted the foremost market for the Corinthia hotel in St Petersburg and now more so with Russians taking more vacations internally. The hotel has established an online presence in the Russian language, opened a sales office in Moscow and consolidated the senior management team to continue building the business in Russia," IHI said. IHI is also about to commence a due diligence exercise on Island Hotels Group Holdings p.l.c. (IHGH). www.creditinfo.com.mt info@creditinfo.com.mt Tel: 2131 2344 Your Local Partner for Credit Risk Management Solutions Supporting you all the way 6PM provides Managed Services at Surrey and Sussex NHS Trust Surrey and Sussex NHS Hospital Trust (SaSH) have been running with 6PM's CareSolutionsTM Data Warehouse for a number of years and throughout 2014, a major upgrade was undertaken to allow the NHS Trust to accept the new Cerner PIEDW feeds. This has been a very successful upgrade project that has now improved Business Intelligence at SaSH with enhanced features to better recover funds through the NHS Payment by Results System, providing improved controls in data quality prior to the submissions of Statutory reporting and financial submissions but most importantly, gives the Trust access to a wealth of previously unavailable information to help improve and develop its clinical services. The business relationship 6PM holds with SaSH led to a request for a CareSolutionsTM Managed Service allowing NHS resources to focus on other areas while 6PM manage their day to day running of the Data Warehouse. This new contract became effective on 12th January 2015 and complements the current Managed Service already being provided to Kingston NHS Hospital Foundation Trust. Ben Emly, Head of Performance at East Surrey Hospital stated "this was the next logical step in our excellent business relationship we have with 6PM and allows us to leverage 6PM's knowledge of the Care Solutions Product, utilise their breadth of technical skills and allow SaSH staff to concentrate on the provision of Business Intelligence services to the Trust and external partners". The newly appointed 6PM Customer Success Director, Peter Bugeja, said "such important contracts can only be within reach once 6PM 'earns the right to be there' and show our customers the business benefits we bring to the table. This we did through the business knowledge and technical expertise of our employees. We will continue to provide real business success to our customer at SaSH through CareSolutions and other products and services". MIA appoints new director Malta International Airport plc hereby announces that Alfred Quintano has ceased to be a Non-Executive Director and Deputy Chairman of the Com- pany. Cory Greenland has been appointed as a Non-Executive Director of the Company in his stead IHI's geographical spread provides resilience in the face of force majeure Operating profi ts on a year-on-year basis in the properties wholly owned by IHI increased as follows: Corinthia Hotel Budapest: .....................................................+17% Corinthia Hotel Lisbon: ..........................................................+31% Corinthia Hotel Prague: .........................................................+43% Corinthia Hotel St George's Bay: ...........................................+90% Corinthia Hotel Marina: .........................................................+36%