Elegant Hotels' revenues shine despite challenges of weak sterling

Elegant Hotels Group on Tuesday reported that annual revenues and adjusted profits crept up though Britons were deterred from its Barbadian hotels by the weak pound.

Turnover increased of £62.9m in the year ended 30 September was up 5.0% on the previous year, primarily driven by the addition of our recent acquisition of Treasure Beach from December 2017 and sustained interest in Barbados as a holiday location, with US visitors to the Caribbean island increasing 9% from a year earlier.

Adjusted profit before tax of £11.4m was 5.6% higher, with cash and cash equivalents of £2.4m at the year-end up from £1.0m over the 12 months.

Chief executive Sunil Chatrani said: "The revenue increase reflects our strategy of delivering day-to-day excellence, developing our existing properties, and expanding our portfolio. The acquisition, refurbishment and subsequent relaunch of Treasure Beach in Barbados was a notable highlight, and since the year end Hodges Bay Resort & Spa in Antigua has opened."

As roughly 76% of the guests staying at Elegant Hotels are from the UK, the AIM traded company acknowledged that it had been affected by the sterling’s weakness against the dollar, though it argued that Barbados remains an attractive destination and insisted that conditions are stabilising.

"Our trading since the start of the new financial year has remained in line with market expectations, and our bookings are currently tracking ahead of the same period last year. While we are confident in our prospects for FY19, the board continues to monitor macroeconomic conditions closely, which have the potential to reduce UK consumer discretionary spend," said Chatrani.

Broker Liberum was positive on the results, stating that the current weakness of the shares meant they were "an excellent opportunity" to pick up a high-quality hotels business on the cheap.

"FY18 results show that management has delivered a solid performance for the year-ended Sep 2018. The market and the group’s performance stabilised in H1'18 and delivered on a strong pipeline of bookings in H2. For FY19E, booking patterns are currently tracking ahead of last year, but movement in tax rates need to be considered (VAT up, corporate tax rate down)," the analysts said.

Elegant Hotels’ shares were up 5.88% at 72.00p at 1058 GMT.