INTOSOL Holdings Plc - Strong First Year Performance from Flagship Hotel

INTOSOL Holdings Plc / Ticker: INTO / Index: LSE / Sector: Travel & Leisure

14 November 2018

INTOSOL Holdings Plc

(‘INTOSOL’ or the ‘Company’)

Strong First Year Financial Performance from Flagship SOUL Collection Boutique Hotel

INTOSOL Holdings Plc, the award-winning international luxury travel company, is delighted to announce that its flagship nine-bedroom boutique hotel, Oceans Wilderness, in the Garden Route in South Africa, has reported a strong maiden financial performance in its first year of operation. 

Part of the Company’s ‘SOUL PRIVATE COLLECTION’, (www.soulprivatecollection.com) a portfolio of owned and managed boutique hotel properties, Oceans Wilderness (www.oceanswilderness.co.za) generated revenue of ZAR 5,297,624 on an 83.7% gross margin and 42.6% pre-tax profit margin.  This was significantly ahead of internal expectations and underpins the Company’s business model of providing travel design to its growing client base, which currently stands at c.15,000, and building a property portfolio of boutique properties, which facilitate increased margins and provide asset backing to the business.

Importantly, Oceans Wilderness received strong reviews across multiple mediums and now ranks as one of the top ten properties to visit on the Garden Route.  It received a 9.6 rating on booking.com and of the reviews posted on TripAdvisor, 99% were positive.  Internal guest research revealed that that over 96% of visitors would book again.  Tourism in South Africa has remained buoyant during the period and indications on bookings for the coming year remain positive.  

To view the announcement with illustrative pictures, please use the following link:  http://content.prnewswire.com/documents/PRNUK-1411181217-4E5C_Oceans_First_Year_Performance__14.11.18_CC.pdf

INTOSOL Executive Chairman, Rainer Spekowius, said: “The first-year performance from Oceans Wilderness, our boutique hotel located on the Garden Route in South Africa, is fantastic.  It is proving to extremely popular with our existing client base as well as independents booking through on-line platforms, and its outperformance of internal forecasts and superb gross margin is testimony that our business model is working. 

“The market for high-end tourism is growing steadily; Oceans Wilderness is just one property in our fantastic portfolio of destinations offered through the SOUL PRIVATE COLLECTION.  Our plan is to build on our profitable platform and identify further properties that we can purchase and deliver our unique style, which is proven to work.   We are close to securing a further property in South Africa and are also looking forward to commencing construction of our Safari Lodge in the Leadwood Big Game Estate, a premier destination for the Big 5.

“These are exciting times for INTOSOL and we have hit the ground running since our listing in October and I am excited about the future.  We have a dynamic company that I believe not only deliver unique holiday experiences, but also has the potential to deliver value for our investors as we deliver on our strategy.”

**ENDS**

For further information on INTERSOL visit the Company’s website www.intosolholdingsplc.com or contact:

Rainer Spekowius Executive Chairman	INTOSOL Holdings Plc	Tel: [phone]
Charles Goodfellow / Martin Lampshire (Corporate Broker)	Peterhouse Corporate Finance	Tel: [phone]
Juliet Earl / Gaby Jenner (Financial PR)	St Brides Partners Ltd	Tel: [phone]

INTOSOL Holdings PLC is an international luxury travel company that merges private travel design with hotel management and property ownership to provide bespoke, high-end global travel experiences across the world. Its profitable private design business which blends personal contact with proprietary technology, VIRTOSOL, already services a growing client base of over 15,000 and the Company is focussed on further expansion into English-speaking markets. To increase margin and asset backing, the Company is building its SOUL Private Collection of leased and owned boutique properties.  In line with this, it is in the process of purchasing and developing a number of sites in South Africa including Oceans Wilderness, a luxury nine-bedroom boutique hotel in the Garden Route and a commercial safari lodge in the renowned Leadwood Big Game Estate, one of the best places to see the Big 5.

The luxury travel market continues to grow and tends to be immune to economic fluctuations, with high-end customers favouring bespoke and exclusive experiences regardless of the greater economic climate. INTOSOL is ideally positioned to capitalise on this trend and execute its growth strategy to become a leading bespoke travel company with an international client base, a global experience portfolio and a range of high-end properties across the world providing high margin revenue and asset backing.

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