Madrid's NH Hoteles falls further into loss; eyes asset sales, new equity

Madrid-based hotel group NH Hoteles reported a net loss of e39.2m in the first quarter, more than double the loss in first quarter 2008. Company revenue fell by 14.9% to e276m, and EBITDA posted a loss of e5.4m against a profit of e22.7m in 1Q08. Business units in Germany and central and eastern Europe have been the best performing markets in 2009 while pronounced falls have been experienced in Spain, Italy and Holland. Overall, the yield - income per available room, RevPar - fell by 18.7%. In Europe the fall was greater, at 18.9%, while the US operations saw declines of 12.9%. In Spain and Portugal RevPar slid by 25.5%, representing the largest fall across the group for the first quarter - followed by Italy with a fall of 18.4%. NH has said it will issue at least e200m in new equity and sell e300m in assets as it seeks to avoid breaching debt covenants.