New | Shangri-La Asia posts US$180.9m net profit but sinks into red in China
Luxury hotelier sees signs of turnaround in China business, with fewer start-up losses expected
Shangri-La Asia, the luxury hotelier owned by the Kerry Group, said its mainland hotel business sank into the red last year but that there are encouraging signs of a turnaround this year.
The company, operator of the Shangri-La, Kerry and Traders chain of hotels, said net profit for last year was US$180.9 million, stronger than the US$161.4 million expected by three analysts in a Bloomberg poll.
Compared with a year earlier, net profit declined 53.9 per cent, because in 2013 the company obtained one-off valuation gains from its purchase of a few mainland property projects.
Stripping out fair value gains and non-recurring items, the group's core profit, or profit before non-operating expenses, was up 36.1 per cent to US$89.8 million, as the company managed to cut pre-opening expenses, and sales in Hong Kong and Singapore maintained healthy growth.
The company's total revenue increased 1.46 per cent year on year to US$2.11 billion.
A stronger rise was dragged down by its hotel business in mainland China, where the majority of its properties are located.
Hotel business in mainland China a loss of US$15.1 million, as newly opened hotels suffered start-up losses.