PALMA DE MALLORCA, SPAIN Sol Meliá SA’s results for the first nine months of 2010 show a profit of €71.7 million compared to €47.5 million in the same period in 2009, an improvement of 51%. Revenue is up 8% to €976.7 million, while EBITDA grew by 16.5 % to €216 .1 million.
Sol Meliá’s RevPAR grew for the seventh consecutive month, increasing by 10.1% in the third quarter. Results were even stronger in Europe, where RevPAR improved by 17.4%.
The bulk of its business—resort hotels in Spain—saw a significant recovery in RevPAR of 8.3%, far higher than the 1.5% increase achieved in the first semester, thanks in large part to recovering ADR.
Sol Meliá expects to meet its covenants and continue to strengthen its balance sheet. The company has renewed the full amount of credit lines that ran out in the first nine months of the year, and has signed four loans for €74 million. Its liquidity guarantees amortisation of debt obligations through December 2012.
Growing its management and franchise businesses will account for 22 of the 27 hotels in its pipeline, or 9.5% of its current portfolio, Sol Meliá says. The company will focus in the coming years on increasing penetration of key Europe city markets and also Latin America and the Caribbean, where the company expects to develop plots of land it owns in México and Brazil.