PPHE Hotel Group H1 2026 Earnings Report

PPHE Hotel Group EPS Results

• Actual EPS: GBX 3.33
• Consensus EPS: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• One Year Ago EPS: N/A

PPHE Hotel Group Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: N/A
• Expected Revenue: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• YoY Revenue Growth: N/A

PPHE Hotel Group Announcement Details

• Quarter: H1 2026
• Date: 8/27/2026
• Time: Before Market Opens
• Conference Call Date: Thursday, August 27, 2026
• Conference Call Time: 6:00AM ET

PPHE Hotel Group (LON:PPH) (LSE: PPH) is an international hospitality real estate company, with a £2.2 billion portfolio, valued as at December 2025 by Savills and Zagreb nekretnine Ltd (ZANE), of primarily prime freehold and long leasehold assets in Europe. Through its subsidiaries, jointly controlled entities and associates it owns, co-owns, develops, leases, operates and franchises hospitality real estate. Its portfolio includes full-service upscale, upper upscale and lifestyle hotels in major gateway cities and regional centres, as well as hotel, resort and campsite properties in select resort destinations. The Group's strategy is to grow its portfolio of core upper upscale city centre hotels, leisure and outdoor hospitality and hospitality management platform. PPHE Hotel Group benefits from having an exclusive and perpetual licence from the Radisson Hotel Group, one of the world's largest hotel groups, to develop and operate Park Plaza® branded hotels and resorts in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. In addition, PPHE Hotel Group wholly owns, and operates under, the art'otel® brand and its Croatian subsidiary owns, and operates under, the Arena Hotels & Apartments® and Arena Campsites® brands. PPHE Hotel Group is a Guernsey registered company with shares listed on the London Stock Exchange. PPHE Hotel Group also holds a controlling ownership interest in Arena Hospitality Group ('AHG'), whose shares are listed on the Prime market of the Zagreb Stock Exchange. Company websites: www.pphe.com | www.arenahospitalitygroup.com For reservations: www.parkplaza.com | www.artotel.com | www.radissonhotels.com | www.arenahotels.com | www.arenacampsites.com

PPHE Hotel Group H1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Positive Sentiment: Solid first-half operating performance: Like-for-like revenue increased 4.7% to £208 million, while EBITDA rose 8% to £49 million, expanding the margin by 50 basis points to 23.5%. The U.K. was the main growth driver, supported by meeting and events activity and a 5.2% RevPAR increase.
• Neutral Sentiment: Balance-sheet simplification came at the cost of higher leverage: PPHE bought the Park Plaza London Waterloo freehold for £147.9 million, funded largely by new debt, lifting net debt to £932 million and group loan-to-value to 39.5%. Management said the transaction removes the risk of rising lease costs eroding EBITDA over time.
• Negative Sentiment: Earnings remained flat despite EBITDA growth: Higher interest expenses following recent refinancing kept rolling 12-month EPRA earnings at £53 million, or £1.25 per share. The interim dividend was maintained at 17 pence per share.
• Negative Sentiment: Strategic review ended without a takeover offer: Fattal’s indicative £22-per-share cash proposal did not progress after PPHE’s largest shareholder, Euro Plaza Holdings, withdrew its support. The board said the review nevertheless informed plans to maximize shareholder value and simplify the balance sheet.
• Negative Sentiment: U.K. operating and development conditions remain challenging: Business rates, national insurance, employment-law complexity, supply-chain issues and construction economics are weighing on returns, prompting PPHE to pause decisions on its U.K. development pipeline. Management said current trading remains in line with full-year 2026 consensus expectations, with some improvement in Croatia during the summer.

Presentation

[Jake Downes, Director at Investor Meet Company]

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the PPHE Hotel Group Limited investor presentation. Questions are encouraged. They can be submitted at any time via the Q&A tab that is just situated on the right-hand corner of your screen. Please just simply type in your questions and press send. The company may not be in a position to answer every question it receives during the meeting itself.

[Jake Downes, Director at Investor Meet Company]

However, the company can review all questions submitted today, and will publish those responses where it is appropriate to do so on the Investor Meet Company platform. Before we begin, we would just like to submit the following poll, and if you could give that your kind attention, I am sure the company would be most grateful. I would now like to hand you over to the team from PPHE Hotel Group. Greg, good morning, sir.

[Greg Hegarty, Co-CEO at PPHE Hotel Group]

Hello, good morning. Good morning and welcome to our 2026 half-year results. My name is Greg Hegarty. I am Co-CEO of the PPHE Hotel Group. To my left I am joined by Robert, our EVP of Commercial, and to my right, I have Daniel Kos, our Chief Financial Officer. We are really pleased to report good solid first half-year results, good strong operating performance. Before we get into the detail, I think it would be poignant to show a quick video. Thank you.

[Greg Hegarty, Co-CEO at PPHE Hotel Group]

Okay, thank you for that. What we are going to do, I am going to talk you through some of our strategic and operational updates. We have had several strategic financing highlights during the period. These include the acquisition of a freehold of Park Plaza London Waterloo for GBP 147.9 million, which was funded by a new five-year facility at GBP 136.5 million. This transaction has simplified and strengthened our balance sheet, and Daniel will take you through that a little bit more as we go through the presentation.

[Greg Hegarty, Co-CEO at PPHE Hotel Group]

We also refinanced our art'otel in Rome for EUR 27.6 million, which was also on a five-year facility. That is in euros. As a further highlight, most recently, we have disposed of our New York development site, last Friday at $33.5 million. The reason for that was really predominantly due to regulation changes, and made the development really unviable in the U.S. So, we optimized the site. We purchased some air rights on the site, so that meant it was development ready, so it made sure we could optimize it for a sale, which obviously we did, and that transacted last week. The proceeds of this will be used to repay the debt on the site.

[Greg Hegarty, Co-CEO at PPHE Hotel Group]

However, the additional proceeds will be used in hard geographical regions. Along this, we also have numerous land pipeline within the U.K. You can see we are aware we have Westminster Bridge Road, our development on the A40, and on Leman Street, as well as potential to develop our existing assets in our portfolio. Our future focus in the near term is very much going to be launching our 5,000 sq m of office space at the art'otel Hoxton.

[Greg Hegarty, Co-CEO at PPHE Hotel Group]

That will be One Rivington, our co-working concept. That is due to open in mid-November and is currently being marketed to prospective tenants. As always, we will always continue to focus on cost efficiency, operational improvement. We are also doing a significant amount of technological transformation in our front-of-house operations, including the introduction of kiosks across our portfolio. We will continue to focus on those efficiencies as we go forward.

[Greg Hegarty, Co-CEO at PPHE Hotel Group]

Moving on to the next slide. I think it was poignant just to touch on this following the completion of a strategic review period. In November 2025, the board announced that it was undertaking a strategic review to consider a number of options to maximize value for all shareholders. Subsequently, in May 2026, an indicative proposal regarding a possible cash offer was received from the Fattal Hotel Group at GBP 22 per share. The board evaluated the proposal with its independent advisor and sought feedback through a consultation process from a significant portion of our shareholder base. During this consultation, Euro Plaza Holdings, the company's largest shareholder, withdrew its support from the offer of Fattal. Consequently, Fattal determined it would not proceed with any further context of the strategic review, and it concluded in July 2026.

[Greg Hegarty, Co-CEO at PPHE Hotel Group]

Despite this fact, the strategic review did not result in a firm offer for our shareholders. It did, however, facilitate significant deeper discussions around the future strategy of the group. This has resulted in the board concluding shareholder value. This resulted in how the board could conclude and how it would deliver shareholder value for the future and how this can be maximized for clear operational delivery and balance sheet simplification going forward. With that in mind, we are putting all of those findings into a proposal to see how we move forward as a company in due course. Moving on to that, I will hand over with Daniel with the results of the first half. Daniel.

[Daniel Kos, CFO at PPHE Hotel Group]

Thank you, Greg. As Greg already said, we are quite pleased with the group's performance for the first six months of the year, which reported solid growth across all key metrics. The achievement is realized despite the geopolitical environment that the group currently trades in. Total revenue on a like-for-like basis was up 4.7% to GBP 208 million, which resulted in a like-for-like EBITDA growth of 8% to GBP 49 million. That represented a margin expansion of 50 basis points, reporting a 23.5% margin in the first six months. As usual, our operations are quite seasonal, and the majority of the group's EBITDA and margin is realized in the second half. That is mainly due to the seasonal effects of our Croatian leisure portfolio that is really ramping up in the high season in July and in August.

[Daniel Kos, CFO at PPHE Hotel Group]

Total revenue increased really on the back of a solid meeting and events revenue growth in the U.K., particularly in the first quarter, I would say, but also due to our like-for-like average RevPAR growth of 3.1%. That RevPAR growth increased on the back of a like-for-like room rate increase of 3.2% and occupancy stable at 72.5. Our increased EBITDA performance was offset by higher interest costs after the refinances that we have done in the last 12 months.

[Daniel Kos, CFO at PPHE Hotel Group]

Therefore, our 12 months rolling EPRA earnings stayed flat at GBP 53 million or GBP 1.25 per share. Based on these earnings, the group proposes to pay an interim dividend of 17 pence per share, which is in line with last year. In terms of total revenue, diving a bit deeper in the regions, because it is quite different across the regions. As you can see on this slide, the United Kingdom has clearly been the main driver behind our growth, with a total revenue growth of 6.8% and a RevPAR growth of 5.2%. While the ramp-up of Hoxton is obviously supporting this growth, in general, we had quite a strong period in the U.K.

[Daniel Kos, CFO at PPHE Hotel Group]

Particularly, the first quarter was very strong with us, with some very large-scale meeting and events taking place in the usual slower month of January. Total revenue growth in the first quarter in the U.K. was 8.8%, with the second quarter showing a solid growth of 5%. As you might all be aware, the Netherlands started the year with a substantial fiscal headwind as the government increased the VAT from 9% to 21% on hotel bedrooms.

[Daniel Kos, CFO at PPHE Hotel Group]

As the majority of our pricing publicly is inclusive of VAT, this would have resulted in a 12% negative impact on room rates. I am therefore quite pleased to say that we have managed to mitigate the total revenue decline in the Netherlands to 5.3% in local currency and 2.4% in sterling, instead of the 12% that was expected. This drop came mainly on the back of occupancy at this point, and only a drop of 3.4% in local currency in room rates.

[Daniel Kos, CFO at PPHE Hotel Group]

Croatia was shut for the majority of the part of the first six months, and the performance is not really reflective of a normal trade in the six months. Germany, on a like-for-like basis, reported a year-on-year flat revenue and 2.9% growth in sterling terms. With regards to the EBITDA growth of 8%, the U.K. was again the main driver with both EBITDA growth and margin expansion. This growth was achieved despite the higher business rates that are taking effect from the second quarter onwards and will increase up to and including 2028.

[Daniel Kos, CFO at PPHE Hotel Group]

In the Netherlands, the expected EBITDA drop amounted to EUR 1.3 million, which in local currency, is largely similar to the top-line revenue loss we had on the back of the VAT changes we have just discussed. Anything lost in the top converts 100% to the bottom, unfortunately. However, we continue to ramp up our newly opened properties, a further rollout of automation and operational efficiency programs to mitigate the effect of these fiscal headwinds. In terms of adjusted EPRA earnings, the rolling 12 months stayed flat with December at GBP 53 million, which is GBP 1.25 per share.

[Daniel Kos, CFO at PPHE Hotel Group]

As you can see, earnings were positively impacted by the increased EBITDA levels, but offset with higher interest rate expenses after the substantial refinance we have done in the last 12 months. Free cash flow for the rolling 12 months amounted to GBP 76 million and has been largely used to pay dividends of GBP 17 million, bank loan repayments of GBP 26 million, and ROI CapEx, which included, for instance, three freehold acquisitions.

[Daniel Kos, CFO at PPHE Hotel Group]

One was the Leman Street acquisition in the City. The other was the freehold acquisition of the Park Plaza, Park Royal. The last one was the buyback of the freehold in the Park Plaza Waterloo, which I will detail later on. Net debt increased from GBP 775 million at year-end to GBP 932 million at the end of 30 June, which is an increase of GBP 157 million, largely caused by the buyback of the freehold in Park Plaza Waterloo.

[Daniel Kos, CFO at PPHE Hotel Group]

The new bank loan that we took to fund this acquisition has been signed with Bank Hapoalim and has a five-year maturity. The loan has a loan-to-value of 70% at acquisition date, which will be amortized further in the coming five years to a loan-to-value of 65%. 90% of this loan is fixed for two years at an all-in interest rate of 5.9%. After this transaction, the average group loan-to-value increased to 39.5% from 35% before, which we feel is still acceptable levels.

[Daniel Kos, CFO at PPHE Hotel Group]

The majority of our loans have now been refinanced, and the average maturity have been extended to 4.4 years with an average cost of debt of 4.4%. In terms of the Waterloo transaction, we had quite a substantial transaction here, whereby we bought back the freehold interest of the Park Plaza Waterloo for GBP 148 million and inclusive of purchase expense at GBP 156 million.

[Daniel Kos, CFO at PPHE Hotel Group]

To explain the rationale behind this transaction, it is probably best if we go back to 2017 when we initially sold the land and leased it back for 200 years. This transaction was shortly done after we had built and opened the hotel in the summer of 2017. We had an all-in cost of construction of GBP 125 million and were able to sell the asset for GBP 161 million under a 200-year leaseback at 3.2 cap rate.

[Daniel Kos, CFO at PPHE Hotel Group]

The sale and leaseback, the 3.2 cap, amounted to a rent of GBP 5.6 million back in the day when we did this, and this is inflation-adjusted going forward. It left the hotel with a remaining EBITDA post-rent of GBP 5 million. This remaining EBITDA post-rent is valued as a leasehold value at GBP 80 million back in the day. This transaction, it really made sense for us back in the day.

[Daniel Kos, CFO at PPHE Hotel Group]

It enabled us to get more cash out than we had spent on building the hotel, and it remained us with an asset valued at GBP 80 million. The GBP 161 million of cash, it was used to pay special dividend back in the day, and the rest was recycled back in the group to fund growth. Our underwriting back then expected that EBITDA would grow at a similar pace as the inflationary adjustments on the rent.

[Daniel Kos, CFO at PPHE Hotel Group]

This was based on experiences we had in the 10 years preceding to this deal. However, COVID, labor shortages due to the Brexit, energy cost increases, national insurance increases, and business rate increases made that our EBITDA did not grow at a similar pace as the rent adjustment. The rent was eroding the EBITDA over time. With this acquisition, we stopped the EBITDA erosion.

[Daniel Kos, CFO at PPHE Hotel Group]

The freehold was bought back at GBP 13 million lower than we did the initial deal in 2017 at a cap rate of 4.9%. When we bought back this lease, the rent increased from the GBP 5.6 million back in the day to GBP 7.3 million at acquisition date. After this transaction, the free cash flow of the group will remain at similar levels, slightly lower at the start due to the high-base interest rates. However, on the long run, these will improve with annual interest expenses expected to decline. Expected to decline because we are amortizing the loan, and if the interest rates in the future go down further, we will benefit from that. That is opposed to a rent that was going to increase 4% on an annual basis.

[Daniel Kos, CFO at PPHE Hotel Group]

This transaction led to a large simplification of our balance sheet, de-risking the impact it had on EBITDA erosion, and holding the freehold will create more optionality with the future, with this asset. Handing back to you for current trading now, Greg.

[Greg Hegarty, Co-CEO at PPHE Hotel Group]

Thank you, Daniel. I am pleased to report summer trading in the city locations is comparable to the similar trends we have observed in half one. We actually see these mostly improving as half two continues. U.K. properties also continue to perform strongly, with a gradual improvement in momentum seen in the Croatian region, through the summer season. As we have already alluded to, we have a clear focus on operational delivery alongside future balance sheet simplification as we go forward into the second half. Most of all, trading is in line with the consensus of the expectations for full year 2026, despite the headwinds which we are seeing in the regions. I think with that in mind, let us go to some Q&A, Robert.

[Robert Henke, EVP of Commercial Affairs at PPHE Hotel Group]

Thank you. Probably one for you, Daniel. We have received a number of questions around the largest shareholder, Euro Plaza, rejecting the Fattal offer that was proposed. Can you give some more context perhaps as to the rationale, the reason for.

[Daniel Kos, CFO at PPHE Hotel Group]

Obviously, I see that the two questions raised here are around the decision of our largest shareholder to oppose this transaction. As Greg already alluded to, we had a GBP 22 offer from Fattal, which the majority of the substantial amount of shareholders we consulted supported. Also, the board supported it as being fair value. However, Euro Plaza has decided to not support this. With the acceptance conditions that Fattal had later placed in their offer, the offer was not deliverable. We can unfortunately not detail the reasoning or go into details of the reasons why the objection was. We cannot comment on the largest shareholder basis on this one.

[Robert Henke, EVP of Commercial Affairs at PPHE Hotel Group]

Thank you. Greg, one for you. There is a question around the development sites. You have obviously touched on these slightly. What do you see as some of the next stage in all of these projects?

[Greg Hegarty, Co-CEO at PPHE Hotel Group]

The pipeline.

[Robert Henke, EVP of Commercial Affairs at PPHE Hotel Group]

The pipeline.

[Greg Hegarty, Co-CEO at PPHE Hotel Group]

Currently at the moment, there is no getting around the economic headwinds and the government support we are actually seeing in the hospitality sector, specifically in the U.K., is a difficult one. I think ultimately, we obviously want to make sure we deliver the best value we can for our shareholders. With that in mind, and I think it is no secret, we will make sure that we look at all of our land bank considerably before implementation in any developments at the U.K.

[Greg Hegarty, Co-CEO at PPHE Hotel Group]

But I think as what you can see at the moment, we have paused it slightly whilst we are, one, got through the strategic review process, and two, then assessing what the future economical rhythm looks like in the U.K. before we continue. I think with that in mind, we are still ongoing reviewing this pipeline. At the moment, we are not pushing forward or the button on the development at its current point. We will make sure, as I've already said previously, we will make sure we make the right decision going forward for the shareholder. Watch this space on that one.

[Robert Henke, EVP of Commercial Affairs at PPHE Hotel Group]

All right. Thank you. You have covered a lot of different angles including the pressure you're seeing in the U.K. marketplace, specifically for probably new builds and operations.

[Greg Hegarty, Co-CEO at PPHE Hotel Group]

It doesn't matter if it's government business rate pressure, National Insurance rate pressure, employee law pressure, just operating the business in general is becoming more and more complex in the U.K. Not to mention all of the supply chain issues we currently see, especially also development challenges with bringing land sites to an optimum return on investment post-opening. Yeah, I don't think I can get any clearer than that as a business. I've said it quite formally on record and publicly, the U.K. is a challenging market to deliver future value for shareholders.

[Robert Henke, EVP of Commercial Affairs at PPHE Hotel Group]

Very clear. There's a question around occupancy and rate, with occupancy almost holding where is our sort of opportunity and strategy. I'll answer this. To be honest, we are in a beautiful business that allows us to alternate between driving occupancy and rate. It depends on the market conditions and the performance of the hotel. Where we are currently is obviously we've been driving both occupancy and rate as much as we could. Despite the macroeconomic and geopolitical headwinds, we've been able to maintain largely occupancies. We assess each hotel individually and see where the opportunity is. In Rome, for example, we have an opportunity to improve our occupancy and continue to drive the rate strategy that we set out. This is obviously a flagship hotel in the new market for us.

[Robert Henke, EVP of Commercial Affairs at PPHE Hotel Group]

In the more established hotels, we will really try and focus on driving the rate as much as we can, as the market allows us, dependent on our local competitor set and the dynamics into each of our areas. We are running very busy hotels, so it is always in our benefit and interest to drive more rate where we possibly can. In Holland, as Daniel Kos said, we have had significant impact of the VAT, and not just we, but that is the industry as a whole. There is only so much you can drive the rate, but it is always our intention where we can to drive rate because that is more profitable for us. At the same time, if that opportunity isn't there, we will go off to occupancy.

[Greg Hegarty, Co-CEO at PPHE Hotel Group]

I think we have also, in terms of the opportunities and occupancy, have been further benefited with actually the movement of Dubai isn't as strong as it is year-on-year. Certain parts of Turkey and Greece is actually pushing European travel trends more to Central Europe, which then is actually moving European travel into our markets. I think it doesn't matter if it is Croatia, Amsterdam, or Germany, the slightly stronger occupancy or the opportunities to yield on occupancy are beneficial currently from that factor.

[Robert Henke, EVP of Commercial Affairs at PPHE Hotel Group]

That sort of concludes the questions. Jake, I think it is over to you for the poll.

[Jake Downes, Director at Investor Meet Company]

Perfect, guys. If I may just jump back in there and thank you very much indeed for your presentation and for addressing those questions that came in from investors. Of course, if there are any further questions that do come through, we will make these available to you immediately after the presentation has ended. Greg, perhaps before, really now just looking to redirect those on the call to provide you with their feedback, which I know is particularly important to yourself and the company. If I could please just ask you for a few closing comments just to wrap up with, that would be great.

[Greg Hegarty, Co-CEO at PPHE Hotel Group]

Yeah, absolutely. Thanks very much. Listen, I think from our aspect and where we're going, the group is in a solid performance. It does have very good, solid opportunities to grow the business. We have got maturing assets still coming through our current portfolio, especially coming from Hoxton, especially as we now start launching our co-working. Actually, our markets in the U.K. are very strong. Notwithstanding, this process, which we have just completed, gave us some valuable insights. Those insights have informed the business of where we can create future value for all shareholders, and we look forward to reviewing that and potentially implementing it in the future. With that in mind, thank you for your support, and I look forward to seeing you next year. Thank you.

[Jake Downes, Director at Investor Meet Company]

Perfect, Greg. That's great. Thank you all once again for updating investors this morning. Could I please ask investors not to close this session, as you will now be automatically redirected for the opportunity to provide your feedback. On behalf of the management team, we would like to thank you for attending today's presentation. That now concludes today's session, so good afternoon to you all.

Participants

Executives

• Greg Hegarty, Co-CEO
• Daniel Kos, CFO
• Robert Henke, EVP of Commercial Affairs

Analysts

• Jake Downes, Director at Investor Meet Company