The Rezidor Hotel Group reported a record profit and a record number of new hotel openings for 2007.
The group posted pre-tax earning of €83.5m, an increase of nearly 40% on 2006 and post-tax profits of €45.7m, a 58% rise on the €29m figure for the previous year.
The Scandinavian group said it also had signed a "record" number of 53 new hotels during the year, adding a total of 8,937 rooms to its properties. There were also a further 322 in the chain's pipeline.
During the year, it said its 200th Radisson and 100th Park Inn hotels were opened.
Rezidor said that in 2007, revenue per available room (revPAR) rose by 6.7% to €76.5 compared to €71.7 in 2006 while and occupancy increased marginally from 69.1% to 69.7%.
It said revPAR rose in several key European cities, led by Moscow (31.5% growth), Warsaw (13.4%) and Stockholm (12.8%).
Vienna, Paris and Brussels al showed double digit growth followed by London with a 9.7% rise.
Rezidor said the increase in revPAR was driven by increases in rates.
Revenue form rooms had risen most in Norway and Sweden although the rest of Western Europe also enjoyed growth, especially in France, Germany, the Benelux countries and the UK.
The group also reported strong results for the fourth quarter to December 31.
Revenue was up by 15.1% from €185.4m to €213.3m, pre-tax earnings rose to €25.4m while post-tax profits rose by 90% from €8.8m to €16.7m.
Kurt Ritter, president and ceo of Rezidor, said: "We are able to report a record profit and a record number of new hotels signed.
"The full year shows a robust increase in EBITDA margin mainly due to continued strong revPAR development, growth in revenue fees from managed properties and improved margins at hotels in their ramp-up phase.
"The full year adjusted EBITDA was €83.5m. This means an increase of close to 40% compared to 2006 and the EBITDA margin improved two percentage points to 10.6%.
"Pre-tax profit almost doubled to €63.9m and profit after tax was up 58% percent to €45.7m."
Mr Ritter said economic uncertainties made it difficult to predict the future market.
But he added: "We are confident of achieving our target of adding 20,000 rooms to operations from 2007 to year-end 2009, and believe that the ongoing shift in our business model driven by more fee based revenue will continue to support our EBITDA margin target."
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Strong profit rise for AF KLM
Air France KLM's operating income rose by 23.4% in the third quarter from €252n to €311m.
The airline also reported that revenues for the three months to December 31 were up by 3.9% to €5.98bn.
It operating margin rose by 0.8% to 6.1%.
The carrier said that while there was a "strong rise" in unit revenues, the rise in traffic was hit by the five-day pilots' strike last October and limited to a 1.9% increase.
For the nine months to December 31, AF KLM said that operating profit rose by 17.9% from €1,231m for the same period in 2006 to €1,451m.
There is also speculation that AF KLM might take a stake in the new airline created by ant merger of Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines.
The two American carriers are in advanced talks over a possible tie-up.
Pierre-Henri Gourgeon, deputy ceo of AF KLM, said the carrier would do what it could to help the merger including taking a minority stake.
AF already has close ties with Delta as does Northwest with KLM. All three are also leading members of the SkyTeam Alliance.
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