In the first six months of 2008, NH Hoteles Group’s sales rose by 7.5%, to €771M, confirming the improvement in performance compared to the same period of the previous yearEBITDA (operating profit) was €146.1M, 2.7% higher, and net income fell to €32.4M, because of the reversible provision (€12.3M) set up to cover the change in the price of the shares used to cover the incentives plan approved by the Group in 2007. It is therefore important to take into account that after eliminating the effect of this provision, the net income of the Group would have been higher than for the same period last year.

Hotel activity grew by 10.2% in sales over the first six months of 2008, a sign of the strength of NH Hoteles’ core business. Worthy of mention is the major effort put in by all the Business Units in the Group to cut costs, which has enabled it to improve its GOP margins. The good performance of the hotels in all the Business Units has led to an increase of 11.7% in the EBITDA of the hotel business.

Comparable RevPAR (Revenue per available room) increased by 2% to June, compared to the same period last year. This increase is based essentially on a 2.8% increase in ADR (Average Price). In general terms, remarkable is the performance of the Business Units of Germany, “Central and Eastern” Europe and the Americas (in local currency), which recorded major increases in RevPAR exceeding 10%.
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