IHI registers record pre-tax profit

Principal milestones and achievements

• The company has achieved a record pre-tax net profit for 2019, totalling €13.9m.
• Adjusted EBITDA has grown to €60.3m in 2019, almost double the €33m in 2014.
• We have entered into arrangements with a third party investor to develop and eventually lease a prime property in Rome. The property is the former headquarters of the Bank of Italy and will be transformed into a luxury Corinthia Hotel.
• Development work on the Corinthia Hotels in Bucharest, Brussels and Dubai has proceeded in 2019 and works on site in Moscow, Rome and Doha have commenced this year

The chairman of the Group (commonly known as the Corinthia Group) Alfred Pisani said: “We are proud to announce that we are moving ahead with our hotel property in Rome, which we are developing under a lease agreement with an investment fund. The property is the former seat of the Central Bank of Italy in Parliament Square. Plans are in hand for the conversion of the 7,500m2 building into a luxury destination, featuring a number of suites and top of the range bedrooms. The luxurious public areas include two restaurants, bars and lounges, all wrapped around a central garden. The hotel also has a spa and other amenities. I am confident that this hotel development will be a successful operation which will consolidate our relationship with the fund that owns the property, prompting both parties to repeat similar agreements in other destinations.

“May I add that we are at present involved in a number of other projects. We are for example developing a mixeduse residential and hotel property in Moscow, by way of a joint venture in which IHI has 10% shareholding, as also the management contract for 30 years. We are also developing a hotel in Brussels in which IHI owns 50%, together with the management agreement. Purely as a provider of management and technical services, IHI, through its management company, CHL, is also involved in the development of three luxury hotels under construction in Bucharest, Dubai and Doha, and once completed CHL will take responsibility for the hotel management of these three properties.

“As we entered into 2020, the company had been planning to eventually explore business in certain locations in the African continent, on the basis of this continent’s significant growth potential, and where we would like to take the opportunity to fly our flag. This is no different to what we had pioneered in the Eastern European countries more than two decades ago.

“At present, we have put on the market our hotel in Prague where an exclusivity agreement has been signed, identifying heads of terms on the sale. Our negotiations on this front are proceeding, however one must appreciate that the pandemic has brought an uncertain timetable to these discussions.

“As a Maltese public company, IHI, is still very committed to continue to develop and expand further in Malta. Our plans for the San Ġorġ project to develop a luxury hotel and real estate depend on the ongoing discussions with government, which we hope to resume shortly and we are confident that we will ultimately be successful.

“Concurrently, as owners of 85,000 square metres of land at Ħal Ferħ, with a permit for tourism, we are presently discussing with government certain changes in the development brief which would be more in keeping with current trends in the luxury hotel market to also include a degree of high-end residential villas, but never exceeding in height or in volume the limitations imposed on the land by the current planning parameters. In fact, I am happy to inform you that the consultation procedure on the Development Brief is in progress and we look forward to seeing this concluded positively.”