Meliá Reports 7.9 Percent RevPAR Uptick in 2012

Meliá Hotels International has announced results for 2012 which show an increase of +7.9 percent in revenue per available room (RevPAR), fully explained by improvements in average room rates.

Meliá achieved €1,362.4 million in revenues over the year, generating EBITDA of €249.5 million (+1.5 percent). Net profit reached €37.3 million, 7 percent less than in the previous year, due to lower capital gains from the disposal or revaluation of assets (2012: €93.4 million; 2011: €133.0 million).

The results have been achieved mainly thanks to the strength of the hotel business, which due to a strategic focus on improving revenues and customer loyalty generated a growth in RevPAR above market averages and even above the expectations of the Company with regard to average room rates.

Such evolution enabled Meliá to post an Ebitda increase of 8.4 percent of the hotel division, while the quality of the RevPAR evolution -mostly explained by pricing- led to a hotel EBITDA margin improvement 48 basis points.

The Company believes that the satisfactory business performance also supports the extraordinary evolution in share performance, with an increase of 48.4 percent in the share price in 2012, well ahead of the Spanish Ibex-35 benchmark index and continuing to date in 2013 with an upward trend in the share price and demand.

The positive evolution of the global economy driven by emerging economies and the United States during the second half of the year, together with improvements in global financial conditions supported 4 percent growth in international tourist arrivals in 2012 to 1,035 million. The ranking was headed by emerging economies (+4.1 percent) where Meliá Hotels International is focusing a large part of its growth, along with healthy growth in the more advanced economies of +3.6 percent.

In terms of source markets, the global trend enabled the Company to generate a dramatic increase of 47 percent in stays from Latin American source markets such as Brazil, Argentina, Colombia and Chile, while stays by guests from the United States – the leading source market for the Caribbean - grew by 11 percent.

The global progression of the group, the result of which is that operations outside Spain generate 80 percent of results, confirms the success of the commitment of Meliá Hotels International to international growth.

The experience of over 27 years in international hotels and a considerable presence in 35 countries allowed the company to benefit in 2012 from growth in destinations in the Caribbean and Latin America, fuelled by the economic boom in source markets such as the United States, Canada and the emerging Latin American countries themselves, as well as increased consumption in traditional source markets such as Europe and Scandinavia, and the significant growth of markets such as Russia or Asia.

The existing pipeline for the Group (hotels signed or in the process of opening) currently includes 41 hotels with 12,405 rooms, 91 percent of which belong to the upscale segment and 90 percent of which are located outside Spain. All of them will be added under low capital-intensive formulas (management contracts and variable lease agreements).

Meliá continues to intensify its international expansion, supported by the prestige of its brands and its expert management capacity, and aims to keep up in 2013 the rate of adding a new hotel every 3 weeks which it achieved in 2012.

The company also emphasizes the evolution and focus on Latin America and Asia-Pacific. In the former, Meliá saw a 30 percent increase in RevPAR in its Caribbean resorts, while in Asia-Pacific, the fastest growing region in the world in 2012 and a major priority, Meliá has doubled its portfolio in the region in the past two years, thanks to new hotels in China, Indonesia and Vietnam.

The Dominican Republic achieved a strong RevPAR growth, despite the tough competitive environment, largely thanks to our brand positioning and the continued improvement in brand standards, along with extraordinary improvements in rates, setting new records in important hotels such as the Paradisus Palma Real or Meliá Caribe Tropical.

Mexico also recorded excellent results with RevPAR growth of +5.6 percent in dollar terms, thanks to the positioning of the newly opened Paradisus Playa del Carmen La Perla and La Esmeralda in Riviera Maya, and the Paradisus Cancun – previously Gran Meliá Cancun – which has benefited from the change thanks to new brand standards and Paradisus brand positioning.