The Rezidor Hotel Group has reported an improvement in RevPAR, cash flow from operations and its EBITDA margin in the fourth quarter of last year. Structural changes were undertaken during the year to build a strong platform for continued profitability improvement.
Wolfgang M Neumann, president and CEO of Rezidor, comments: “Despite a continued fragile global macroeconomic climate, Rezidor’s like-for-like RevPAR continued to show a positive development with a healthy growth of 4% in the fourth quarter of 2012. For the full year, RevPAR grew by 5%, fuelled by a strong growth in Eastern Europe and the Middle East and Africa.
“The RevPAR improvement – together with the continued weakening of the euro – resulted in a revenue increase of 7% in Q4 2012, including a strong growth of 18% in fee revenue from our managed and franchised business.
“Our EBIT margin and the net result were negatively impacted primarily by termination costs for lease agreements, which we exited in the quarter and write-downs of assets resulting in a MEUR 13 loss after tax. Cash flow from operations, adjusted for the termination costs, improved by MEUR 12.
“Our commitment to profitable asset-light growth continues. All of the 4000 room openings and 7100 room signings in 2012 were either managed or franchised contracts.
“Rezidor achieved another important milestone by converting two lease agreements to franchise agreements in Sweden. Together with the earlier announced exit from seven leases in France, these transactions represent a positive effect of ca 0.5% on the EBITDA margin going forward.
“Our continued global commercial focus in partnership with Carlson, the effective execution of Route 2015, and the cost-cutting programme combined with significant organisational changes have strengthened our platform – paving the way for continued profitability improvement in the years ahead.”
