Admiral Hotel making a fortune for secret owners

Hotel was the biggest-earning independent hotel in Denmark last year

The prominent four-star Admiral Hotel in Copenhagen had its most successful year ever, according to its latest accounts, Børsen reports. The hotel’s parent company CAH AS reported pre-tax profits of 55.5 million kroner on a turnover of 113.4 million kroner, but details of the company’s ownership are the subject of intense secrecy.

Unprecedentedly good
Ole Egholm, the head of the industry analyst firm Dansk Brancheanalyse, said that the result was remarkable for an independent hotel. “Its good result is almost unprecedented and it cements the Admiral Hotel as the economically strongest standalone hotel in Denmark.”

Admiral came in second place for hotel profits, after the Arp-Hansen Hotel Group, with 12 hotels totalling 3,500 rooms, which made 125 million kroner last year.

According to Børsen, the Admiral Hotel’s owners have made 275 million kroner from the business over the past ten years, but their identity is not known.

Jørgen Bertelsen, the head of the hotel, gave little away to the newspaper. “When the hotel was founded in 1978, it was a number of aviation people who owned it,” he said. “And it’s their descendents who own it now.”

All the owners of the hotel own less than 5 percent of the share capital, so there are more than 20 people.

Egholm said that this was not typical in the industry. “It’s quite unusual for the hotel branch,” he said. “There’s very often just one or two owners.”

 




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