Hilton hotels group reports 10% rise in profit

British hotels and gambling group Hilton today reported a 10 per cent rise in year profit and said it would return up to £4.2 billion to shareholders early in the second quarter.

Hilton also said it expected to complete the sale of its hotels to US namesake Hilton Hotels Corp. later on today.

Profit before tax rose 9.9 per cent to £413.9 million in 2005, and earnings per share rose 8.9 per cent to 22 pence.

Hilton said its Ladbrokes betting offices had suffered from the loss of some horse racing fixtures in the first few weeks of 2006, and from some poor results.

But its eGaming unit continued to be successful, and telephone betting was recovering.