Ramón Aragonés (NH): “We don’t want to be the biggest, but the most profitable”.

Internal tensions aside, NH’s business is going from strength to strength. This has been confirmed by its executive vice-president and CEO, Ramón Aragonés, at a general meeting marked by the struggle between minority shareholders and the Thai group Minor, majority shareholder with more than 95%.

The hotel chain’s revenue estimate for the second quarter of the year will exceed by more than 100 million euros the figure for the same quarter of 2019, when it reached 469 million euros. This represents an increase of approximately 20%. In terms of profitability, Ebitda is expected to grow between April and June 2023, driven by good results in key markets, both in the leisure and corporate segments.

For Ramón Aragonés, the key to NH’s good performance lies in the latter variable. “We don’t want to be the biggest, we want to be the most profitable,” he said, referring to a strategy based on average daily revenue, which was 145 euros per night in April. This has been growing in the months of May and June in line with occupancy, which is close to 2019 levels.

In contrast to the commitment of many hotel companies to increase their hotel portfolio in view of the great opportunities in the market, NH prefers to be selective in the opening of new hotels. According to the growth plans shared by the group, it plans to open 1,900 more rooms between 2023 and 2026, focused on the premium branded segment, with a greater presence in key markets. Thirty per cent of the new rooms will be opened in Portugal, 15 per cent in Spain, 14 per cent in Italy and the remaining 41 per cent in Latin America.

“We are not going to sign hotels that do not add value,” Aragonés remarked in this regard. An example of this is that of the 130 projects that were analysed last year, only 13 were signed. “This is going to be a constant in the company,” said the head of NH. “Right now there is an inflation around valuations and we are not going to do anything crazy”.

The chain has been basing its expansion formula for years on management contracts (89% of the total portfolio at present) or equity (the remaining 11%), to the detriment of asset ownership. “We will only sign hotels for lease when they are real opportunities or in capitals where we do not have a presence and are a priority to reinforce our positioning,” concluded Aragonés.

This positioning is aligned with the objective of alleviating the company’s net financial debt, which has gone from 308 million euros at the end of 2022 to 274 million euros as of 31 May this year.