DAVY VIEW

Dalata has announced that it has further augmented its pipeline with its first entry into Edinburgh. It has acquired a building in a prime central area of the city, which it will develop into a 153-bedroom hotel including a bar, restaurant, gym and meeting rooms. Further to the recent announcement that it had acquired the leasehold interest in the Hard Rock Amsterdam, it has given further detail on the acquisition and redevelopment cost (€34m) and the expected annual earnings profile (€5m). These two acquisitions mean that the group has added 606 rooms (c.6%) in the year-to-date and the four hotels will add c.€21m in stabilised annual earnings when operational. Despite these acquisitions, bank net debt/EBITDA after rent will be <1.5x at year end. Both of these acquisitions are perfectly aligned with the group strategy of acquiring prime locations in European cities with a mix of leisure and business guests.