BARBADOS-BASED Elegant Hotels Group plc is making moves to enhance its corporate profile and financial performance.
The company, which owns and operates seven upscale freehold hotels and a beachfront restaurant here, has appointed Liberum Capital Limited (Liberum) as its joint corporate broker with immediate effect.
Officials said Liberum would work alongside Zeus Capital Limited, which has advised the Elegant as nominated adviser and broker since the tourism company launched its initial public offering (IPO) on the London Stock Exchange’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM) in May 2015.
Elegant has been purchasing hotel properties and establishing various partners in Barbados and the region as part of its efforts to diversify its portfolio and improve its financial performance.
When its last financial year ended on September 30 last year, the group had $114 million in revenues and EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortisation) before non-recurring items of US$39.2 million.
Elegant also said that since the IPO and listing on AIM the company’s objective “has been to leverage its position as a leading hotel operator in Barbados and to expand both on Barbados as well as further into the Caribbean”.
“In 2016 it signed a management contract with its first ever property outside Barbados, Hodges Bay Resort in Antigua, which was followed in 2017 by a marketing and sales services agreement with The Landings Resort and Spa in St Lucia,” it stated.
Elegant now has a hotel portfolio numbering 588 rooms, a number which makes double the size of its closest competitor in the Barbados luxury hotel room market.
The company’s most recent acquisition was of Treasure Beach Hotel here. Elegant recently announced that further to its initial announcement on April 3, “all conditions for completion have now been met and the transaction has therefore formally completed”.
Speaking in January as the company released its annual financial results, Elegant chief executive officer Sunil Chatrani said the group faced challenges but expected continued success.
“Despite the current challenges that the group and the wider Barbados luxury hotel market are facing, we continue to be confident in our long-term growth prospects and remain committed to our expansion strategy in both Barbados and across other parts of the Caribbean,” he said. (SC)
