De Vere wins Ryder Cup payout
DE VERE Hotels, owner of the famous Belfry hotel and golf course, has settled its compensation negotiations with the operators of the Ryder Cup for cancelling last year's tournament following 11 September.
The mainly provincial hotels group wrote off £1.2m when the 2001 Cup was scrapped after the terrorist attacks. Now it has settled for a £300,000 cash payment from the organisers and will see them front around £600,000 of costs incurred in staging the event this September.
Elsewhere in its business, De Vere's nimble shift from the corporate conference market into tourist leisure breaks insulated it from most of the damage suffered by its rivals in the aftermath of the attacks.
In the six months to 31 March, it made operating profits of £23.1m against £18.2m for the same period last year on turnover of £140m against £129.2m last time. The interim dividend goes up from 3.7p to 3.95p.
A £10m modernistic refurbishment on its Cavendish Hotel in London's St James's is on track for autumn completion. Chief executive Paul Dermody today said that the London market remained too unstable to forecast.
