Peninsula hotel owner sees profit rise by 73 per cent

Hong Kong & Shanghai Hotels, which operates the luxury hotel chain Peninsula, posted underlying interim profit of HK$293 million, up 73 per cent from a year ago.

Chief executive Clement Kwok King-man said that occupancy rates at its Hong Kong flagship hotel had not yet been affected by a slowdown in luxury spending but warned that the summer months were always slower and business would not ramp up again in Hong Kong until October.

Inclusive of property revaluation gains, net profit rose 46 per cent to HK$452 million for the six months to June, according to the company result announcement. An interim dividend of 5 HK cents was recommended.

Shares of the firm fell 0.18 per cent to HK$11.30 while the Hang Seng Index gained 0.15 per cent.

On August 1, the firm opened the Peninsula Paris, a joint venture with Katara Hospitality and its first foray into Europe. The hotel is a stone's throw from the Arc de Triomphe and Champs-Élysées and is part of a wider move to attract wealthy Chinese clientele travelling abroad.

The hotel will compete directly against other Asian luxury hospitality names like the Mandarin Oriental, Shangri-La, and Raffles-operated Royal Monceau. Prestige hotels Ritz Paris and Hotel de Crillon are undergoing extensive refurbishment but once they re-open, the number of five-star beds in the city will have surged by over 50 per cent to 2,000 rooms in just over a decade.