Pretax profits at Marker hotel in Dublin increase 26%

Pretax profits at the five-star Marker hotel at Grand Canal Square in Dublin last year rose 26 per cent to €5 million as revenues increased.

The hotel enjoyed the surge in pretax profits and revenues ahead of the German real estate investment group Deka Immobilien purchasing the hotel for €130 million. The hotel will be relaunched under the Anantara brand in the coming months.

However, before previous owners, Midwest Holding AG, and an investor group led by Kevin McGillycuddy's Brehon Capital Partners sold up, they shared dividends of €10.9 million last year and in 2017.

The new accounts filed by GCS Hotel Ltd show that revenues at the hotel, led by general manager Charlie Sheil, last year increased by 6.4 per cent to €21.7 million.

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Pretax profits increased to €5 million from €4 million, and the hotel enjoyed the surge in revenues after the hotel’s average nightly room rate rose to €252 from €233.

The room occupancy rate was 82.1 per cent at the hotel compared with 83 per cent in 2017.

The 187-bedroom hotel generated €14 million in revenues from rooms; €4.3 million from food; €2.1 million from beverages; and €1.3 million from “other”.

The company paid out dividends of €6.29 million, and this followed a dividend payout of €4.6 million in 2017.

Loyal clientele

Managing director of Brehon Capital Partners Kevin McGillycuddy said on Tuesday that last year the Marker “celebrated its sixth anniversary of operations with consecutive year-on-year growth resulting from continued engagement and expansion of our loyal clientele”.

Mr McGillycuddy went on to say the hotel has planning permission in place “for an additional 30 rooms extension on the top of the hotel as well as substantially improving and creating a rooftop level that will accommodate a major restaurant and bar outlet with possibly one of the city’s most desirable outdoor terraces”.

The profit at the Marker hotel company last year takes account of non-cash depreciation costs of €1.6 million.

Numbers employed last year totalled 214, and staff costs last year were €6.8 million. The company recorded an after-tax profit of €4.5 million after paying corporation tax of €515,263.

The profit offset by the dividend payout resulted in the company’s shareholder funds reducing from €2.4 million to €661,032.

The hotel’s new owners, Deka, also owns the Gibson Hotel at Point Square in Dublin’s north docklands and the Burlington Hotel in Dublin 4.