Mauritius Naiade hotel chain profit up eight-fold

Mauritius luxury hotel group Naiade Resorts said second-quarter profit rose eight fold due to a rise in occupancy, and predicted further gains from tourists avoiding political upheavals in North Africa.

We are expecting the positive trend to be maintained in the current quarter. We have had a very good month in January, Paul Jones, the chief executive officer of Naiade told journalists.

Jones said the French-speaking island of Mauritius would attract French tourist who would normally visit Tunisia. The north African countries where protestors are demanding political and economic reforms.

Given the situation in Tunisia and Egypt, I'm confident for the future of the tourism sector in Mauritius, he said.

The resorts group posted a 121 million rupee pretax profit for the quarter ended December from 14.4 million in the same period a year ago, due to a jump in occupancy rates, and forecast even more improvement.

Tourism is a major source of foreign exchange for Mauritius, which is famed for its white sandy beaches and luxury spas that lure the top end of the leisure market.

Naiade earnings per share rose to 1.34 rupees from a loss per share of 0.11 rupees in the same quarter in 2009.

Naiade said it would sell one of its units, Le Tropical, for 175 million rupees, as well as other assets to offset its debt, but did not reveal the size of its borrowings.

For the half year, Naiade reported a pre-tax loss of 67 million rupees against a loss of 219 million in the same period in the previous year.