Profits slip for Kuwait’s Action Hotels

Hotel group made $4.7m last year but only $4.4m this time around.

Five of Action's properties operate under Accor’s Ibis Hotel brand. Pawan Singh / The National

Action Hotels, the Middle East's first hotel group to go public, reported a slight decrease in profits last year.

Operating profits of the Kuwaiti company with offices in Dubai fell to US$4.4 million, from $4.7m in the previous year.

The company, which owns six properties in the mid-market segment, said its average daily rate increased by 5.8 per cent to $105 and revenue per available room rose by 8.9 per cent to $82.

The group’s loss before tax of $7m was attributed to restructuring costs before its listing in December.

The largest investors of Action Hotels include the British financial services and asset management companies Legal and General, Schroders, Blakeney Management and Duet Group.

Action Group Holdings own 65 per cent of the company.

“There is a good demand for [mid-market hotels] and we are on track to achieve what we have promised,” said Alain Debare, the Action Hotels chief executive. “We have 1,004 rooms across six hotels, and we will grow to 2,500 rooms by 2016.”

The company has eight hotels in the pipeline – seven in the Middle East and one in Australia.

Of these, one in Sharjah – a Premier Inn – and another in Bahrain – an Ibis – will open by the end of next year, which will add 470 rooms. In 2016, it expects to open a 215-room Premier Inn in Dubai Healthcare City and a 112-room Staybridge Suites in Abu Dhabi, its first in the emirate.

It has six properties, with two each in Kuwait and Oman and one each in Jordan and Australia, with a total of 1,004 rooms. Five of these operate under Accor’s Ibis Hotel brand and one under InterContinental Hotels Group’s Holiday Inn.

“To grow faster our strategy would be to own and lease [properties],” Mr Debare said. Of the eight hotels in the pipeline, four would be owned and rest leased.

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