LONDON (ShareCast) -

For the year ended 31 December, the Irish hotel operator achieved profit before tax of €87.3m, an increase of 13% on the previous year, which was driven by a 12% jump in revenue to €393.7m, with €24.8m of the sales increase stemming from Dalata's existing hotel portfolio, €13.2m from new hotels acquired in 2017 and €9.6m from five new hotels opened in 2018.

However, these gains were partially offset by a €3.7m loss of revenue due to the sale of the Croydon Park hotel in June 2017.

Pat McCann, chief executive of Dalata, said: "As I reflect on 2018, I am very pleased with our performance and achievements which required a tremendous amount of hard work. Together, we opened over 1,150 new rooms, executed valuable deals and delivered a strong operating performance. These results embody the innovative and ambitious spirit of our people at Dalata and their dedication to excel at everything they do."

The 1,150 extra rooms came from the opening of a Clayton Hotel Charlemont in Dublin and four new Maldron hotels in Dublin, Cork, Belfast and Newcastle, as well as four extensions to existing hotels in Dublin and the Maldron Hotel Sandy Road in Galway.

Cash and cash equivalents stood at €35.9m at the end of the period, up from €15.7m at the same point the year before, and the company proposed a final dividend of 7 cent per share, its first dividend payment.

Dalata said it is monitoring the Brexit situation but has yet to see any impact on trading as trading remains in line with expectations in the current year with its new hotels expected to contribute positively to earnings amid positive economic projections for Ireland and "increasingly strong" tourist numbers.

"We continue to grow our pipeline and over the last twelve months, we entered into agreements to lease three new hotels in Bristol, Birmingham and Manchester. We completed the acquisition of the Clayton Hotel City of London at the start of January 2019. It opened on January 24th and I am particularly excited about the potential of this hotel. I am also delighted that we were able to secure such a valuable asset in London. I am hopeful it will lead to further opportunities for us in London," said McCann.

Dalata Hotel Group's shares were up 0.05% at 515.70p at 1138 GMT.

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