Jetwing delivers solid financial performance on higher tourist arrivals

Jetwing Symphony PLC reported improved top and bottom-line performances for the three months ended in December 2024, reflecting how the rising arrivals at macro level are translating into better incomes and profits for the resort and hotel operators and changing the fortunes of those both in and outside the industry. 

Jetwing Symphony, which operates seven hotels, including a city hotel in Colombo, reported a revenue of Rs.991.70 million for the three months ended in December 2024, its fiscal third quarter, recording a 12 percent increase from the same period in 2023. 

The company has properties in Wellawaya, Kandy, Dambulla, Pottuvil, two in Yala and the city hotel in Colombo, while its Jetwing Yala has so far been the best-performing property, according to the management. 

Last calendar year saw total arrivals of 2,053,465 for 2024, which was 38.1 percent higher from 2023 and the highest since 2019 but shy of 2.33 million arrivals in 2018, at the industry’s peak. 

The company was also seen to have had a closer tab on the costs, as direct costs were up by only 2 percent, while the administrative cost also rose by a similar level.

Marketing and promotional expenditure rose by 13 percent to Rs.24.12 million. 

As a result, the operating profits rose by 36 percent to Rs.347.07 million for the quarter. 

The company reported earnings of 24 cents a share or Rs.142.78 million for the October- December quarter, turning from a loss of six cents a share or Rs.34.12 million in the corresponding period in 2023. 

The company first turned into a net profit in the financial year ended in March 2024, after going through the most strenuous four-year stretch from the Easter Sunday attacks in 2019. 

The company delivered a net profit of Rs.92.54 million in the last financial year. 

Commenting on the annual financial performance, the company’s Chairman Hiran Cooray in June last year said the company had come out of its critical condition and thus had begun to comfortably meet all requirements with the banks. 

The sector has been under a prolonged moratorium on its debt with its banks since the Easter Sunday attacks in 2019. 

Meanwhile, for the nine months through December 2024, the company reported a total net profit of Rs.233.31 million, compared to a loss of Rs.258.84 million in the corresponding period in 2023. 

This is on a nine-month revenue of Rs.2.78 billion, up 12 percent. 

Arrivals have continued to be strong, with January 2025 bringing in 252,761 arrivals, the highest for any January so far. 

With the sizable cut to the electricity tariffs from January 2025, the company, along with the other resort and hotel operators, should report higher profits in the March 2025 quarter.