DGAP-News: hotel.de reports successful first half of 2010
(firmenpresse) - hotel.de AG / Half Year Results
17.08.2010 10:31
Dissemination of a Corporate News, transmitted by
DGAP - a company of EquityStory AG.
The issuer / publisher is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
hotel.de reports successful first half of 2010
- Sales grow by 10.4% to Euro 16.95 million
- First-half EBIT already positive at Euro 0.04 million
- Further growth potential in second half of year
Nuremberg, 17 August 2010 - hotel.de AG, one of the leading worldwide
online hotel reservation services, can look back on a successful first half
of 2010. Sales grew by 10.4% from Euro 15.36 million to Euro 16.95 million.
Germany accounted for sales of Euro 9.78 million, as against Euro 9.15
million in the previous year. International sales showed even more marked
growth of 15.7% from Euro 6.20 million to Euro 7.17 million, a development
driven by the strong recovery in the economic climate and resultant growth
in international travel volumes among business and private customers alike.
The international share of sales rose from 40.4% to 42.3% as a result. 'The
growth in the international share of our sales reflects the consistent
implementation of our internationalisation strategy', commented Dr. Heinz
Raufer, CEO of hotel.de AG. 'We consistently maintained our investments in
acquiring new customers, particularly abroad, even during the 2009 crisis
year'.
Business breaks even in first half of year already
Higher sales and the measures taken to enhance efficiency have impacted
positively on earnings as the year has progressed. The company reached
breakeven in the first half of the year already, and thus one quarter
earlier than in the previous year. EBIT rose from Euro -0.29 million to
Euro 0.04 million. At Euro 0.21 million, the net surplus for the period was
also higher than the previous year's figure of Euro -0.05 million. Of the
company's investments in its international expansion, a sum of around Euro
2.00 million is accounted for in these earnings figures. Over and above
this, second-quarter sales and earnings were also affected by two one-off
items. On the one hand, the volcanic ash cloud led to an 18% increase in
cancellations during the relevant period. In addition to this, travel
volumes were noticeably lower during the Football World Cup. hotel.de
therefore sees significant potential for sales and EBIT growth in the
second half of the year.
Outlook
The great interest shown in cost-effective online reservation systems
continued in the second quarter of 2010, leading to pleasing new customer
growth at hotel.de. The company expects this to impact positively on
booking volumes and sales as the year progresses. Further growth momentum
is expected from the increasing internationalisation of the company's
business, an area in which hotel.de will be investing around Euro 4 million
once again in the current year. 'The aim is to enhance the attractiveness
of our services for booking customers worldwide. That's why we will be
further boosting our portfolio in destinations outside major cities, thus
ensuring that we offer the widest possible range of hotels. Not only that,
we also plan to increase the number of languages in which our services are
available from currently 17 to 37, thus enabling us to rapidly cover all
relevant languages worldwide', added Dr. Raufer.
To further improve its sales and earnings situation, hotel.de AG plans to
increase its average hotel commission margin to around 12.0% by the end of
the year. Even after this, hotel.de will still be the best-priced provider
in the market. Long-term improvements in profitability are also to be
achieved by increasing process automation by making greater use of IT.
In view of these developments, the Management Board has confirmed its
forecast for the 2010 financial year as a whole, and accordingly expects to
see sales growth of between 10% and 15% and a slight year-on-year increase
in earnings.
The extensive half-year report is available for downloading from the
Investor Relations section of the company's website at www.hotel.de.
hotel.de AG
hotel.de AG, with its international brand hotel.info, operates a free hotel
reservation service for companies and private customers at www.hotel.de and
www.hotel.info. The company offers more than 210,000 hotels worldwide for
booking online. Customers benefit in this respect from considerable cost
savings. hotel.de shows all available room rates for each hotel, thus
always enabling customers to select the lowest or most appropriate rate.
All bookings are forward simultaneously, securely and directly to the
individual hotel. This is guaranteed by the unique integration of hotels'
own reservation systems (so-called CRS and PMS systems) and hotel.de's own
myRES reservation system under hotel.de's standard user surface. hotel.de's
corporate application is already used by well-known companies, such as
BASF, SAP AG, Texas Instruments and Ernst&Young AG. Since January 2007,
hotel.de has extended its portfolio to include a conference enquiries and
booking system. Business customers in particular stand to save time and
money due to the optimised conference organisation processes facilitated by
this conference tool.
hotel.info
hotel.info - the international brand of hotel.de AG - was created to
promote the company's expansion into international markets. To acquire new
customers and hotels abroad, sales offices have already been opened in the
UK (London), France (Paris), Spain (Barcelona), Italy (Rome) and China
(Shanghai). The company's high share of business customers with
international operations facilitates its entry into new markets. The aim is
to establish hotel.info as the leading online hotel reservation service for
business and private customers in the foreign markets mentioned and then
step by step across the whole of Europe.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Press contact:
hotel.de AG
Timo Vavrinec
Hugo-Junkers-Str. 15-17
90411 Nuremberg
Tel: +49 (0)911-59832-0
Fax: +49 (0)911-59832-11
E-mail: presse(at)hotel.de
www.hotel.de
Haubrok Investor Relations GmbH&Co. KG
Simone Gorny
Tel: +49 (0)211-171835 37
Fax: +49 (0)211-171835 38
E-mail: s.gorny(at)haubrok.de
www.haubrok.de
17.08.2010 10:31 Ad hoc announcement, Financial News and Press Release distributed by DGAP. Medienarchiv atwww.dgap-medientreff.deandwww.dgap.de---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Language: English
Company: hotel.de AG
Hugo-Junkers-Str. 15-17
90411 Nürnberg
Deutschland
Phone: +49 (0)911 59832 2600
Fax: +49 (0)911 5983 211
E-mail: kleindienst(at)hotel.de
Internet: www.hotel.de
ISIN: DE0006910938
WKN: 691093
Listed: Regulierter Markt in Frankfurt (General Standard);
Freiverkehr in München, Düsseldorf, Stuttgart
End of News DGAP News-Service
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Datum: 17.08.2010 - 10:31 Uhr
Sprache: Deutsch
News-ID 32022
Anzahl Zeichen: 0
contact information:
Kategorie:
Business News
Diese Pressemitteilung wurde bisher 251 mal aufgerufen.
Die Pressemitteilung mit dem Titel:
"DGAP-News: hotel.de reports successful first half of 2010"
steht unter der journalistisch-redaktionellen Verantwortung von
hotel.de AG (Nachricht senden)
Beachten Sie bitte die weiteren Informationen zum Haftungsauschluß (gemäß TMG - TeleMedianGesetz) und dem Datenschutz (gemäß der DSGVO).
