International Hotel Investments plc (IHI) on Thursday announced that its €60 million six per cent unsecured bond issue, redeemable on 14th November 2033, has been oversubscribed.
As a result, the company has exercised its right to close the offer period on Friday (tomorrow) at 2pm, almost a week earlier than the original closing date of 26th October 2023. This is limited to holders of securities of any company within Corinthia Group, and also any Corinthia Group employees.
The offer period for maturing bondholders shall remain open “unless otherwise communicated”, IHI confirmed.
Therefore, the intermediaries’ offer, scheduled for 2nd November 2023, will not take place.
Earlier this year, the company had said that most of the proceeds from the new bonds will be used to redeem the existing 5.8 per cent unsecured bonds 2023, which are due on 14th November 2023, together with the six per cent unsecured bonds 2024, due on 15th May 2024.
Combined, these two bonds come to a total of €45 million.
The remaining amount, net of expenses related to the bond issue, comes in at around €14.2 million. IHI stated that it will be using these funds for the “general corporate funding purposes of the group”.
IHI’s Board of Directors thanked all applicants and financial intermediaries for their support in making the new bond issue a “success” and for their “trust” in the company.
IHI, the trading name of Corinthia Group, owns and manages a number of hotels in four different continents, and has also delved into residential and commercial real estate markets through a range of investments in subsidiary and associate companies. In Malta it owns the iconic Corinthia Palace Hotel & Spa, as well as Corinthia Oasis, Corinthia St George’s Bay, Radisson Blu Resort & Spa, Radisson Blu Resort, and Marina Hotel Corinthia Beach Resort.
Corinthia Group has seven hotels in the works, all scheduled to be open by 2026. These are spread across Europe (Brussels, Bucharest, and Rome in 2024), the United States (New York in 2024), the Middle East (Doha in 2025 and Diriyah in 2026), as well as South Asia (Maldives in 2026). Six of these hotels are owned by third-party investors.
IHI is planning to increase its room inventory by over 11 per cent to 5,627 keys over the next three years.
It is also in the process of acquiring a planning approval for the redevelopment of an 83,530 sqm site in Ħal-Ferħ, an area close to Radisson Blu Resort & Spa, Golden Sands in Mellieħa, Malta. The project is set to be completed in 2026 for a total redevelopment cost of around €35 million, and will include a mixed-use complex named Corinthia Oasis.
During what it described as a “recovery” 2022, IHI recorded a pre-tax loss of €1.1 million, a significant improvement from the previous year’s €39.6 million loss. Costs were on the rise for the company, yet this was countered by pent-up demand following the easing of travel restrictions.
As at the end of 2022, IHI’s total assets were set at €1.7 billion.
Revenues for 2023 are forecast to reach €280 million, overtaking the pre-pandemic record of €268.3 million registered in 2019. Revenues are expected to continue rising in 2024, going up to just under €340 million.
