Gulf Hotels Group achieves $15.6mln net profit in 2019

The year-to-date decrease in the net profit resulted from a full year of depreciation from the Gulf Court Hotel Business Bay Dubai in 2019 compared to only five months in 2018. There was also a decrease in profits from Associates and Share Investments down by BD160,000 ($421,177).

 

The results were announced during the Group's 50th Annual General Meeting, which was held on April 15 via zoom online video conferencing platform. The meeting was presided over by the chairman, Farouk Yousuf Almoayyed, and attended by the Board Members and representatives from the Ministry of Commerce, Central Bank of Bahrain, Bahrain Bourse and Auditors KPMG.

The company achieved a total gross operating revenue of BD38.570 million ($101.5 million) compared to BD35.111 million ($92.4 million) in 2018, an increase of 9.85 per cent.

 

The Group's total revenue had increased by BD4.459 million ($11.7 million) compared to the previous year and the cash profit for the year had also increased.

 

Almoayyed also announced that the board of directors have approved a 25 per cent cash dividend to the shareholders.

Almoayyed commented that the market in Bahrain had shown signs of improvement and all the Group’s Bahrain-based hotels had performed better than in 2018, however trading conditions in the Dubai market were extremely challenging. The Gulf Court Hotel Business Bay in Dubai, which picked up the ‘Best Debut Hotel’ in the 2019 Arabian Travel Awards, saw good occupancy in its first full year of operation but average daily rate (ADR) came much lower than expected due to an oversupply of hotel bedrooms in the market.

He said: “Local and international travel restrictions are weighing heavy on the hospitality sector, with little or no business travel or leisure guests to generate occupancy in hotels. Additionally, the closure of restaurants and other outlets is having a major impact on revenues and whilst we value the social and economic initiatives announced by the Government and the authorities’ extensive efforts, I call on them to consider significant additional support for hotels and restaurants that are so badly hit by the crisis and will remain impacted for many months to come."

 

Group CEO Garfield Jones said: “The Gulf Hotel has completed the renovation of Fusions restaurant and relaunched the outlet under the supervision of talented Bahraini chef, Tala Bashmi. ‘Fusions by Tala’ also features a stunning outdoor terrace overlooking Manama and whilst the outlet opened prior to the Covid-19 outbreak, a second reopening is planned once current restrictions are lifted."

“The Group has also signed a JV agreement with Gulf Air Group Holding to develop the new transit hotel at Bahrain International Airport. Work on the 84-unit property is in full flow and expected to open for business in Q3 2020," he added.

Since the coronavirus outbreak, the Group is relentlessly mitigating the business and health risks, applying dynamic and proactive measures to maintain the business sustainability, to safeguard our employees and to ensure that we don't link the expansion cycle. - TradeArabia News Service