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Once ailing UK hotel group gets bank’s “vote of confidence”
Monday, 18 Nov, 2010
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Macdonald Hotels is celebrating a new £340 million debt facility, “a vote of confidence” in the group according to its chairman, as it reports a much improved set of books.
The group, which has 40 hotels in the UK including the five-star Bath Spa Hotel and The Randolph in Oxford plus a handful of resorts in Spain, struggled in 2008 with a £9.4 million pre-tax loss.
But it has bounced back with its figures for the year ending October 2009, with a £5.2 million profit.
Chairman Donald Macdonald said the debit facility handed to the company by its banker Lloyds was a result of the “positive relationship” between the Scottish-based operator and the bank which has developed since its takeover of HBOS.
He said: “With these new facilities now in place, our management team has the proven expertise to take advantage of the many opportunities available today and the years ahead in the hotel sector.
“This has given more room to spend further on our hotels.”
The company reports that during one of the worst economic downturns of the last 100 years, 22 of the group’s 38 hotels performed better during 2009 than 2008.
Chief executive David Guile explained: “Despite the difficult market place, room occupancy grew by two percentage points … more than offsetting the decline in the corporate market.”
by DInah Hatch
Dinah
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