During the year to September 2018, easyHotel (EZH) made progress on its ambitions to become the “market leader in ‘super budget’ hotels”, with further expansion funded through a March share placing that raised £500m. Nine new hotels opened during the year, adding a total of 907 rooms, including the first European hotel located in Barcelona. Since the period-end, another hotel has opened in Lisbon, bringing the total portfolio to 34 hotels and 3,169 rooms across 28 cities. So far, it looks as though new rooms are being filled, as occupancy increased from 79.8 per cent to 82.4 per cent, with the average daily rate up from £47.80 to £51.30.
There are concerns that the UK hotel market could be badly affected by Brexit if tourists suddenly become less inclined to come to the UK. Chief executive Guy Parsons said there is “macroeconomic uncertainty that continues to affect consumer confidence”, particularly in the UK, but believes that the cheap rates offered by the group will continue to appeal to budget-conscious travellers. Expansion plans are also putting an increasing focus on European locations such as France, Spain and Germany. The group has added a further 1,160 rooms to the development pipeline and added to the team based in Europe.
Analysts at Investec expect adjusted pre-tax profits of £2.9m during the year to September 2019, giving EPS of 1.5p, compared with £1.6m and 1p in FY2018.
| EASYHOTEL (EZH) | ||||
| ORD PRICE: | 89p | MARKET VALUE: | £129m | |
| TOUCH: | 85-92p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 130p | LOW: 88p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 0.4% | PE RATIO: | 177 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 82p | NET CASH: | £24.9m | |
| Year to 30 Sep | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
| 2014 | 3.5 | 0.57 | 1.2 | nil |
| 2015 | 5.5 | 0.79 | 1.0 | 0.33 |
| 2016 | 6.0 | 1.09 | 1.4 | 0.33 |
| 2017 | 8.4 | 0.86 | 0.7 | 0.33 |
| 2018 † | 11.3 | 0.87 | 0.5 | 0.22 |
| % change | +34 | +1 | -29 | -33 |
| Ex-div: | 24 Jan | |||
| Payment: | 15 Feb | |||
| †Company placed 45.5m new ordinary shares in Mar 2018, taking shares in issue to 146m. | ||||
