Sunday, June 2, 2019

Listed hotels post handsome profits

The listed hotels – though they are only three in number – have posted record profits in the third quarter on increased arrivals and occupancy, though the average daily expenditure of tourists has been on decline.
Among the three listed hotels on the Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse), which have published their unaudited financial reports for the third quarter ending mid-April, Soaltee Hotel and Taragaon Regency Hotels posted profits, whereas Oriental Hotels witnessed decline in profit.
Soaltee Hotel – according to its unaudited third-quarter report – posted Rs 231 million net profit, some 52.35 per cent increase compared to the same period last fiscal year. During the same period last fiscal year, Soaltee Hotel had posted net profit of Rs 151.64 million.
Soaltee Hotel earned revenues totaling Rs 1.31 billion, up by 16.61 per cent year-on-year while its total expenses amounted to Rs 1.02 billion, up by 8.77 per cent only, according to the report of the hotel  that claimed that it had been marketing aggressively to increase its occupancy in the fourth quarter in the key source markets including India.
Likewise, profit of another share market listed hotel – Taragaon Regency Hotels – has jumped by 29.47 per cent before bonus and tax in the third-quarter, compared to the same period in the last fiscal year. According to the unaudited financial statement published by the hotel – mandatory under regulatory order – it has posted a net profit of Rs 356.57 million in the third quarter of the current fiscal year, whereas Taragaon Regency Hotels had posted a net profit of Rs 275.40 million in the third quarter of the last fiscal year.
Taragaon Regency Hotels’ revenues – according to the third quarter report – increased by 14.28 per cent year-on-year to Rs 1.04 billion, whereas revenues totalled Rs 915.7 million. Likewise, Taragaon Regency Hotels’ paid-up capital stood at Rs 1.88 billion including Rs 777 million in reserves, the report reads, adding that its revenue swelled due to a rise in tourist arrivals and effective marketing strategy. “It may face competition in the coming days with the proliferation of five-star hotels in Nepal prompted by an improving political and business environment.”
However, Oriental Hotels, which operates the five-star Radisson Hotel in Kathmandu, reported a net profit rise of 6.32 per cent in the third quarter of the current fiscal year, according to the hotel’s unaudited report of the third quarter. “Oriental Hotels posted a net profit of Rs 207.45 million after tax, up from Rs 195.11 million in the same period in the last fiscal year,” the report reads, adding that its revenue collection stood at Rs 876 million. “Oriental Hotels’ profit growth slowed in the third quarter due to an increase in expenses as it had renovated 40 of its rooms.”
The fourth hotel – Yak N Yeti – that was earlier listed at the Nepse is no more in the share market since last half decade.
Nepal has lately witnessed a large number of hotels due to increasing number of tourists, though the tourist spending has not been increasing. “It will be challenging, if tourist arrivals do not match the increasing number of hotels lately,” Oriental Hotels writes in its report.
Tourist arrivals crossed the one-million mark for the first time in 2018, with 1.17 million foreign visitors travelling into the country, but their spending has plummeted to a seven-year low to $44, according to Hotel Association Nepal (HAN). “The average spending was $54 per day in 2017, whereas in 2003 – during the Maoist insurgency – the per day tourist spending hit a record $79.1.”
Last year, Nepal received 1.17 million tourists and earned a record Rs 70 billion in foreign exchange,” according to the statistics of HAN. “The previous year, the country had welcomed 940,218 foreign visitors and earned Rs 65.8 billion.”
But the increase in tourist arrivals does not match earnings also due to low spending of the tourists. “A arge number of hotels have been selling their rooms at cheaper rates, and as a result, earnings had not increased despite arrivals crossing the one-million mark,” according to HAN.

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