Dalata Hotel says trading in early 2017 marginally ahead of expectations

Dalata Hotel Group says its trading performance in the first four months of 2017 has been marginally ahead of expectations.

Chairman John Hennessy said in an AGM statement that this followed another year of significant growth in the size of our portfolio and earnings in 2016.

RevPAR growth in Dalata's Dublin and Regional Ireland properties was in line with expectations.

"We have experienced strong RevPAR growth in our London and Northern Ireland portfolios," he said. "RevPAR growth in our provincial UK properties has been marginally ahead of expectations."

Hennessy said management was very satisfied with the trading performance of the group's hotel portfolio in the first four months of the year. "The outlook remains positive for the markets in which we operate," he commented.

Dalata continued to make progress on its development pipeline of more than 1200 new hotel rooms.

"We continue to look for opportunities to purchase the freehold interest of some of our existing hotels in Ireland," said Hennessy.

"We are also looking to expand our Clayton and Maldron brands in the UK and are encouraged by the current pipeline of potential opportunities."

At 12:59 BST, shares in Dalata Hotel Group were down 5.81% to 405p each.