FIHC expects higher sales, profits

Formosa International Hotels Corp (FIHC, 晶華國際酒店集團), which operates the Formosa Regent Taipei (晶華酒店), expects to record higher sales and profitability this year through the expansion of its budget-priced Just Sleep (捷絲旅) hotels.

Earlier this month, FIHC launched its third hotel under the Just Sleep brand in Taipei and plans to launch three more in the second half of the year, one each in Greater Kaohsiung, Hualien County and Yilan County.

FIHC saw net profits rise by 4.68 percent in the first quarter from the same period last year to reach NT$322.1 million (US$10.77 million), or NT$3.33 per share, compared with the NT$307.69 million, or NT$3.18 per share, recorded a year earlier, the company’s stock exchange filing showed.

“The [Just Sleep] brand has attracted many individual tourists from Japan, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore and Malaysia,” the company said in a statement.

FIHC expects the expansion of the Just Sleep hotel network to continue boosting the company’s sales and profitability in the second quarter, adding that an increase in its catering business — which accounts for more than half of its overall revenue — was also an important factor in driving profitability in the first quarter.

Ambassador Hotel (國賓大飯店), which operates three hotels and several restaurant brands, also saw its profitability grow in the first quarter from a year earlier.

Ambassador Hotel’s net profit totaled NT$93.47 million, or NT$0.26 per share, in the first three months of the year, compared with NT$71.78 million, or NT$0.2 per share, a year earlier, the company said in its stock exchange filing.

The hotel operator said sentiment in the second quarter may be flat, since the period from last month to next month is usually a weak season for the hotel sector.

The decrease in the amount of Japanese tourists visiting Taiwan this year caused by the depreciation of the yen may also create uncertainties for the hotel sector’s business this year, the company said.

Meanwhile, Hotel Royal Chihpen (知本老爺大酒店), another hotel operator, posted NT$10.33 million, or NT$0.27 per share, in net profit for the first quarter, down from NT$15.92 million, or NT$0.41 per share, during the same period last year, its financial statement showed.

FIHC expects higher sales, profits