SHR is confident about its earnings growth prospect in the second half of the year due to the fast recovery of tourism sector in UK and Maldives.  Trust that the lowest quarter of the year has passed and is confident that the UK and Maldives portfolios are key factors driving income during the high season approaches in Q3 and Q4 of this year.  The Q1/2021 performance reflected continued growth in total revenue with 48% rise over the previous quarter.

 S Hotels & Resorts Plc (SHR), the flagship hospitality arm of Singha Estate PCL, reported its Q2/2021 performance with continued growth in total revenue by 48% (QoQ) to Bt. 803 million resulting mainly from the first full quarter revenue recognition from UK portfolio acquired in Q1/2021. The revenue contribution of UK portfolio accounted for 41.3% of the total revenue generated in Q2/2021 which reflects the success of SHR’s strategy to create business stability through the revenue diversification.  Additionally, SHR believes that the lowest quarter of the year has passed and is confident that earnings starting from Q3/2021 will improve after the tourism sectors in many countries have been recovered due to the successful of vaccination programs and the upcoming holiday seasons during the second half of the year.

Key factors to drive H2/2021 earnings of UK and Crossroads Maldives portfolios are the easing of certain lockdown measures and the borders reopening to foreign travelers. The final stage of easing lockdown restrictions in England was set on July 19^th while Maldives has now reopened its borders to South Asia countries tourists since July 15^th in which the number of tourist arrivals in Maldives in July 2021 jumped by 81% when compared to previous month.

For SHR self-managed hotels in Thailand, the launch of “Phuket Sandbox” project to reopen borders for overseas tourists brought up the occupancy rate of SAii Laguna Phuket in July to 37%.  If the COVID-19 situation in other major tourist destinations is under controlled, we expect to see more stimulus programs to capture foreign arrivals in order to revive the tourism sector in Thailand.

On the Investment side, there is significant progress in the development of Island 3 in the project Crossroads Maldives in which on July 14^th, SHR together with JV partner, Wai Eco World Developer Pte. Ltd. (WEWD), has signed a hotel management agreement to introduce SO/ Hotels & Resorts, Accor’s rebellious luxury lifestyle brand, to CROSSROADS Maldives. The resort is expected to open in 2023.

Mr. Dirk De Cuyper, Chief Executive Officer of S Hotels & Resorts Plc, said “We are confident that our UK and Crossroads Maldives hotels will be the key drivers to push revenues and operating profits of SHR to continuously grow in the second half of 2021. The easing of travel restrictions as well as other COVID-19 preventive measures are key factors that lift the performances of the two portfolios as the travel season approaches during the second half of the year”.

In addition, the introduction of SO/Maldives allows Crossroads to expand and reach new markets worldwide, thanks to Accor’s global distribution and loyalty network that bring the success to Crossroads which was recently awarded as the “Best Leisure Development Maldives (Five-Star)” in the Asia Pacific Property Awards 2021-2022.