Activities

Millennium & Copthorne owns, manages and franchises around 91 hotels in the four- to five-star bracket in 16 countries.

The group has a dual origin, starting in the UK in the 1970s as a hotel operator for British Caledonian Airways and in Singapore 1980s as part of City Development Limited (CDL).

It has two key brands. Millennium hotels are four-star deluxe and five-star properties in prime sites in international gateway cities or prominent business locations.

Copthorne hotels are four-star properties in major regional business centres or resorts in the UK, Germany, Malaysia, Singapore and New Zealand (where it is the country’s largest four-star brand).

In New Zealand, the group operates a third brand, Kingsgate Hotels.

The group has developed a boutique-style format for business travellers typified by the M Hotel Singapore. Although the company opted not to build on the brand, it has rolled out the style to other properties.

Timeline

• 1970s: Caledonian Hotels is set up to run resort hotels for British Caledonian Airways. Based in Mallorca, Caledonian Hotel Management operates management contracts in Switzerland, Gambia and Sierra Leone. It owns some properties in Mallorca, along with the original Copthorne Hotel near Gatwick in Copthorne, West Sussex.
• Early 1980s: The operation moves to Horley in Surrey under a new management team.
• 1985: The Copthorne Hotels brand is launched. After selling the Mallorca hotels, the group comprises the Gatwick Copthorne and managed properties in Barbados, Dutch Antilles, Zambia, Gambia and, later,  Brussels. Over the next two years, new UK hotels are opened in Aberdeen, Glasgow, Birmingham, Manchester, Plymouth and Effingham Park at Gatwick. The overseas hotels leave the portfolio.
• 1987: Aer Lingus buys Copthorne Hotels in a deal that adds the London Tara hotel to the portfolio.
• 1988: New hotels open in Cardiff, Merry Hill (Dudley), Newcastle and Slough.
• 1989: In Singapore, CDL Hotels International (CHIL), a subsidiary of CDL, buys six hotels in Asia.
  1993: In its first move outside Asia, CHIL buys the Gloucester hotel in London and a 13-strong chain in New Zealand.
• 1994: CHIL moves into the USA with the purchase of the Millennium Hilton and Millennium Broadway in New York.
• 1995: CHIL buys Copthorne Hotels for £219m. Millennium & Copthorne (M&C), which has 17 hotels in the UK, France and Germany, is formed as a subsidiary company.
• 1996: M&C floats on the London Stock Exchange and buys the Millennium Britannia hotel in Mayfair, London, from InterContinental.
• 1997-1998: The Copthorne brand is launched in New Zealand in 1997 and in Asia in 1998.
• 1999: In the spring, M&C buys all of the hotels in Asia and Australasia owned by CHIL for £556m. It also buys the five-star Seoul Hilton for $213.5m. In December, M&C buys Regal hotels in the USA for $640m (£395m).
• 2000: M&C becomes a subsidiary of CDL after CHIL sells its shares in M&C to the parent company. M&C picks up its first UK management contract, the Millennium Madjeski Hotel Reading. It also forms a global strategic marketing alliance with Maritim Hotels, one of Germany’s largest hotel companies.
• 2001: M&C acquires management contracts in the Middle East and in the Galapagos Islands.  In September, the Millennium Hilton in New York – which is owned by Millennium but run by Hilton – is badly damaged by the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre.
• April 2002: M&C renames the Copthorne Harbour View Hotel in Singapore the M Hotel Singapore. Originally planned as a chain of boutique hotels aimed at the business traveller, M&C decides to roll out the style and ethos, but not the name.
• April 2003: Celebrity chef Brian Turner opens the Brian Turner Mayfair restaurant at the Millennium Hotel Mayfair in partnership with Parallel, a division of contract caterer Aramark.
• February 2005: M&C sets up a dedicated management team to grow the UK portfolio to 20 or 30 hotels within three to five years through management contracts, franchises and joint ventures. By mid-summer it has signed contracts for the new-build Millennium Hotel Southampton Ocean Village (which opens in 2008) and the Kirtons Farm Reading (which becomes a Copthorne in 2006 after refurbishment).
• March 2005: Brian Turner opens Turner’s Grill at the Copthorne Slough-Windsor. During the year, it disposes of five properties (in Malaysia, Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan) and signs 10 new management and franchise contracts, including its first in China.

Financial snapshot

Full year

Turnover: £595.2m (2004: £551m)
Pre-tax profit: £95.8m (2004: £91m)

Half year

Turnover: £281m (2004: £263.6m)
Pre-tax profit: £40.1m (2003: £18.6m)

Financial year end: 31 December 2005
Half-year end: 30 June 2005

Operating data

Figures for the year to December 2005

Group occupancy: 73% (2004: 71.8%)
Group average daily rate: £64.01 (2004: £60.59)
Group revenue per available room: £46.73 (2004: £43. 50)

London occupancy: 84.8% (2004: 83.5%)
London average daily rate: £80.20 (2004: £79.79)
London revenue per available room: £68.01 (2004: £66.62)

Number of hotels: 91 hotels in 16 countries

New Zealand: 31 hotels, including four Millenniums, 11 Copthornes, and 16 Kingsgates
USA: 19 hotels, including 16 Millenniums, one Comfort Inn, the Four Points Sheraton Sunnyvale and the Pine Lake Trout Club. The group also manages the Royal Palm Resort in Ecuador.
Europe, Middle East and Africa: France (two Millenniums), Germany (one Millennium, one Copthorne), UAE (three Millennium hotels) Egypt (the Coral Beach Diving Hotel Marsa Alam)
Asia: Indonesia (one Millennium hotel), Malaysia (one Copthorne hotel), The Philippines (the Heritage Hotel Manila); Singapore (five hotels – three Copthornes, M Hotel Singapore and the Orchard Hotel Singapore)

UK hotels: 17, including five in London

The group owns 16 of its UK hotels, while the Reading property is managed.

Millennium: six -  Millennium Hotel Glasgow, Millennium Madjeski in Reading, and four in London (Millennium Bailey’s Hotel London Kensington, Millennium Gloucester Hotel London Kensington,  Millennium Hotel London Knightsbridge, and Millennium Hotel London Mayfair)
Copthorne: eleven - in Aberdeen, Birmingham, Cardiff, Merry Hill in Dudley, Effingham Park Gatwick, Gatwick, London (the Copthorne Tara in Kensington), Manchester, Newcastle, Plymouth, Slough
Other: The Kirtons Farm Hotel in Reading will become a Copthorne hotel in 2005 after refurbishment.

Number of employees: 12,300 (worldwide)

Strategy

"“In 2005, we delivered good earnings growth by exploiting our operating skills in an improving trading environment. We also used our real estate expertise and resources to derive further gains from our portfolio of assets. We have undoubtedly benefited from our twin strategy of both operating and owning hotels worldwide. We now propose an increase in our dividend of 23% over the ordinary dividend paid for 2004.

“In the first six weeks of 2006, trading has continued in line with the positive trends of 2005.."

Source: chairman's interim results statement, February 2006

Key directors

Group chief executive : Tony Potter
Chairman: Kwek Leng Beng
Senior vice-president finance: Robin Lee

Contact

Corporate Headquarters
Scarsdale Place
Kensington
London
W8 5SR

Tel: 020 7872 2444
Fax: 020 7872 2460

E-mail: marketing@mill-cop.com
Website: http://www.millenniumhotels.com

Commentary

By late 2005, M&C owned most of its properties and, unlike many other international operators, seems happy to remain a hotel owner.

However, it is increasingly looking to expand through management contracts, franchising and joint ventures and, in the nine months to September 2005, had signed nine management contracts in the UK, New Zealand and Bangkok.

In the peer-reviewed Britain’s Most Admired Companies listing in 2004, M&C was voted ninth in the top 10 table for hotel and leisure companies. It was placed 189th in the listing of the top 220 companies across all industries.