Amaris hotel group generates revenues of £392m

Amaris Hospitality, the Irish-headquartered group of 74 British and Irish hotels that includes Jurys Inn, generated earnings (ebitda) last year of about £93 million (€104 million) on sales of £392 million, according to accounts provided to The Irish Times.

The financial statements illustrate how the US private equity group Lone Star, which owns Amaris, has used Jurys Inn as the linchpin of the newly assembled hotel group, which also includes properties operating under other brands such as Accor and Hilton. It has total assets of £1.7 billion.

The 2015 accounts for Amaris cover the period when the group, comprising several disparate portfolios bought by Lone Star, was stitched together with Jurys Inn at its heart.

Amaris is run by chief executive John Brennan, the former chief executive of Jurys Inn, and headquartered at the Irish chain's old Dublin offices.

The accounts don’t include full-year contributions from all of the portfolios that comprise the group. For example, the Amaris accounts capture only 10 months of Jurys Inn’s performance, and as little as six months of some of the other hotels.

Total revenues

More than 90 per cent of the revenues were generated in the UK, the accounts state, with the balance generated in Ireland, where its hotels include several Jurys Inns and also the Hilton Garden Inn on Custom House Quay in Dublin.

Jurys Inn accounts for more than 40 per cent of total revenues in the group, and sales at the Jurys Inn division were up 9 per cent, it is understood.

The audited accounts for Amaris record an operating loss of £31 million, although this doesn’t reflect the operational performance of the hotel as the figure is skewed by an asset writedown of £72 million.

Lone Star also generates a substantial return from interest payments to the US private equity outfit on shareholder loans, which also detracts from the underlying operational performance.

Amaris has £460 million of bank loans and £468 million of loans to Lone Star entities, the accounts state. The bank loans accrued interest of £17.3 million, but the loans to Lone Star accounted for the bulk of the rest of the £100 million or so of interest repayments.

The directors say they are satisfied with the results, with a “positive trading performance” continuing into 2016.

Massive shortage

The directors also lauded the “strong market conditions and performance” in the Irish market. There is a massive shortage of hotel stock in Dublin, which is leading to a spike in room rates in the capital.

The Amaris portfolio includes 36 Jurys Inn, 31 Accor, and seven franchised hotels, including Hiltons.

The original Jurys Inn hotels are known within Lone Star as the Malin portfolio, which are ascribed a book valuation of £452 million, not including debts of £242 million.

In commentary attached to the accunts, Mr Brennan notes that the Irish market continues to perform strongly in 2016, although he notes that occupancy and rates have declined slightly in early 2016 at its London properties.