Sol Melia Increases Revenues by 6 Percent in First Quarter to 288.9 million euros

Sol Melia has announced financial results for the first quarter of the year this morning showing revenues of 290 million euros, up 6 percent higher than the same period in the previous year, largely due to the positive performance of city hotels in Spain and Europe and the hotels in the Dominican Republic and Sol Melia Vacation Club.

If asset sales are excluded, revenues grew by 10.5 percent due to the fact that the Company has not disposed of any of its hotel assets between January and March 2007, unlike in the first quarter of 2006. In spite of this, the Company maintains its asset rotation objective of disposals to a value of 100 million euros for the year.

This is also the reason behind the decrease of 4.1 percent in net profits to 20.9 million euros. Excluding asset rotation, net profits increased by 84 percent.

EBITDA reached 65.4 million euros, representing a decrease of 5.9 percent when including the sales of assets in 2006 and an increase of 12.4 percent if asset sales are not included in the comparison. Sol Melia has thus met market analysts’ expectations for the 19th consecutive quarter and maintains its positive outlook for the rest of the year.

In the first quarter of the year the European City Division enjoyed a very positive performance, a trend which is expected to continue in the forthcoming months, achieving growth in RevPAR (Revenue Per Available Room) of 8.5 percent.

Finally, the Sol Melia Vacation Club, now present in 11 hotels, kept up the strong growth seen since launch, achieving an increase in EBITDA of over 70 percent in the first quarter.