Meliá Hotels increases its profits by 28%, earns 140 million and believes the legacy of Covid has been overcome

The group’s target was to achieve a gross operating result (Ebitda) without capital gains of at least €525 million, and this has been achieved, as explained in a statement today.

In September, the company’s liquidity position stood at €482.3 million and pre-IFRS 16 net financial debt fell to €832.2 million (-€60 million in the third quarter due to operating cash generation).

“The company faces the last quarter of 2024 with greater strength, which is reflected in a significant acceleration in the quantitative and qualitative growth of our portfolio.

in a more sustainable business model and greater profitability efficiency, as well as a stronger balance sheet with a net financial debt to Ebitda ratio that, by restoring pre-pandemic levels, will reflect the worst legacy of Covid and allow us to usher in a new phase of value creation,” said the group president Gabriel Escarrer.

The release of these results was accompanied by the announcement of at least nine more hotel openings before the end of the year. We must remember that the company has experienced sensational growth in the last two years and is close to crossing the 400 outlet mark.

Well, to these nine hotels that will open before the end of the year, we must add the possibility of opening a portfolio of luxury hotels in Argentina through management contracts, which is under study, the company announced today.

Currently there are 357 hotels in the operating portfolio, another 71 are in the process of registration. 66.8% of this supply is luxury or premium, which is good at the business level as it is generally more sustainable than lower categories.

Normalization of growth

On the business side, in the first nine months of the year, gross operating result (Ebitda) amounted to €428.6 million, up 10.8% compared to the same period in 2023. Net revenue per available rooms (RevPAR), in turn, increased. 11.9% until September (up 10.7% in the third quarter).

“The first nine months of the year confirm a healthy trend toward normalization of growth, although domestic and international tourist arrivals once again exceeded previous year records, as well as average spending per visitor,” the president and CEO said. Melia, Gabriel Escarrer.

Regarding these statements, it should be remembered that the Spanish tourism sector has not been focusing on visitor counting for some time, quite the opposite. The truth is that tourism continues to grow and break records this year, but at a more moderate pace compared to the post-pandemic “boom.” As ABC has already explained, employers’ association Exceltur celebrated the event because “Spain will never have problems with demand, so we should not try to break tourism records, but citizens’ satisfaction records,” explained its president.

Regarding the outlook for the fourth quarter, Melia assured that they are good and hopes to achieve the goal of achieving double-digit growth. Let us recall that in the third quarter of the year, the profit of the family hotel company Escarrer amounted to 88.1 million euros (40.9% more than in the same quarter of 2023, when it earned 62.5 million. This allowed it to achieve a gross operating profit). The result (Ebitda) amounted to 188.3 million euros, exceeding that recorded in the same quarter of 2023 by 11.8%.

In terms of revenues, they grew by 2.7% in the third quarter to reach €584.1 million, with the coasts and the Balearic Islands being the regions recording the best growth, with the UK and Spanish markets particularly standing out. Revenue per room (RevPar) also improved significantly, increasing 10.7% compared to the same 2023 quarter.