Costs associated with the strategic review which led to the agreed sale of the company dragged down profits at Dalata Hotel Group in the first half of this year.
Latest figures for the group – which owns the Clayton and Maldron hotel chains – show a 45% year-on-year slump in post-tax profit to €19.6m, for the first six months of this year, while revenue crept up 1% to €306.5m.
Dalata – which owns and operates hotels across Ireland, the UK, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain – launched a strategic review of its entire business in March, eventually leading to an accepted €1.4bn takeover offer by a Scandinavian hospitality and property consortium, comprising the Pandox and Eiendomsspar businesses.
That deal is still awaiting shareholder and regulatory approval before being formally completed. Dalata will hold an extraordinary general meeting on September 11 for shareholders to vote on the deal.
Dalata Hotel Group chief executive, Dermot Crowley, said: “Notwithstanding the external commentary of a challenging year for tourism in Ireland, on a ‘like for like’ basis, our RevPAR in Dublin and Regional Ireland is at the same level as the same period last year. However, continued increases in costs and especially pay rates puts downward pressure on our margins.
“The UK market has been more challenging, and this has impacted on our RevPAR performance with a 3.5% reduction versus last year. Our focus on innovation and looking for smarter ways to do things has helped to protect our margins across all geographies.”
