Poor tourism takes glitz off Ritz

13 April 2012

PROFITS at the Ritz lost their sparkle last year after the Iraq war deterred tourists from visiting London. The landmark hotel, owned by the secretive billionaire Barclay twins, made a profit of £1.7m, compared to £4m in 2002.

But Ellerman Investments, Sir Frederick and Sir David's property holding company, narrowed losses to £4m from £4.7m after adding up property depreciation and interest charges. Group sales were flat at £61m.

The brothers noted: 'Trading (at the Ritz) since the year-end has shown considerable improvement over the comparative period for 2003.' They value the hotel at £175m, £100m more than they paid for it in 1995.

Through Ellerman the Barclays own the Hotel Mirabeau in Monte Carlo and the Ritz Club Casino. Casino profits eased 8% to £6.3m despite a 'significant improvement in trading activity'.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in