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Aparthotel operator Staycity Group has announced a new financing deal negotiated with Dunport Capital, giving it a €22.5m (£19.1m) flexible loan facility to support the group’s on-going growth plans.
The Dublin-based group, which now operates nearly 3,000 apartments across 12 European cities, also revealed positive trading year for 2019 with “record” occupancies across its estate.
Staycity CFO Wayne Arthur confirmed that turnover for the year to December at the group is expected to have grown by 14% to €78m (£66.3m), with EBITDA also rising by around 11%.
In addition, the year saw the group put “significant investment” into central functions to support the opening of some 1,800 keys in its secured pipeline over the next two years.
The year also marked Staycity’s entry into the German market with the opening of a 48-apartment Wilde Aparthotel by Staycity, a 284-key aparthotel in the popular Val d’Europe area near Disneyland Paris and the group expanded its foothold in Edinburgh with the opening of its second aparthotel in the city, this time under its Wilde brand.
Arthur said: “The year was a challenging one, particularly in the UK where confidence has been fragile due to Brexit uncertainty.
“Despite these challenges, we delivered a record like-for-like occupancy of 87.3% and are delighted to have signed a new €22.5m loan facility with Dunport Capital, after five years of fantastic support from Proventus, which has secured Staycity with a flexible, seven-year loan as well as significant interest savings and a supportive Dublin-based partner.”
Staycity co-founder and CEO Tom Walsh added: “I am delighted with the progress made in 2019, not only did we deliver industry-leading occupancy levels, we’ve also gained our strongest ever guest satisfaction scores.
“We are on target to deliver revenues of over €100m in 2020 along with continued profit growth. The new year will see us continuing to work towards our target of operating 15,000 apartments by 2024.”
Staycity added its growth plans continue into 2020 with a new 224-apartment property in Manchester’s Northern Quarter scheduled to open in March, to be followed in November by a 142-apartment building on Dublin’s Mark Street. By 2021 Staycity expects to have over 1,000 apartments operating in Dublin.
