Australian hotel and resort owner Mantra Group has reported record first half revenue of $366.2m for period ending 31 December 2017, an increase of $10.1m.
Additionally, for the first time, the Group sold 1.97m rooms in the first half of the financial year – the highest ever for that period – while increasing available rooms by 2.6% in the six month period by acquiring ten new properties, including seven from the acquisition of the Art Series Hotel Group.
New acquisitions included Mantra Sydney Airport Hotel, Sydney; Mantra Macarthur, Canberra; FV by Peppers, Brisbane; and Art Series Hotel Group properties in Adelaide, Brisbane, and Melbourne.
Mantra Group Chief Executive Officer Bob East revealed that key areas of the business performed more strongly than others, with the overall Group result benefiting from the portfolio’s diverse geographical spread.
East said:“During H1FY2018, the Group delivered total revenue of $366.2m, representing a 2.8% increase on H1FY2017.
“This result was driven by a number of factors including the acquisition of ten new properties, continued growth in domestic and international travel, increased business travel to some CBD locations, an increase in the total number of rooms available across the Group’s Resorts and CBD operating segments, as well as improved RevPAR.
“We are pleased with the performance of the properties that we transitioned into the portfolio; in particular the seven Art Series Hotels have transitioned smoothly and performed ahead of expectations in the short period they have been with the Group.”
Sydney, Brisbane, and Adelaide in the CBD segment benefited from positive sentiment in corporate travel while Queensland and New Zealand in the Resorts segment continued to see strong growth in domestic and international travel.
While the Group’s results are usually more heavily weighted to the first half of the year, the addition of the Commonwealth Games in Q4 of FY2018 is expected to drive results in H2FY2018.
“Mantra Group is in a good financial position with total assets of $905m, net assets of $485m and a strong cash flow,” East added.