SD Holdings Limited, db Group’s holding company, recorded €70.8 million revenue during the financial year ending 31st March 2023, a surge in performance following a pandemic-stricken past couple of years.
The group’s total assets have now reached €376 million, up from the previous year’s €350 million. The company’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased by 24 per cent, factoring in at €30.4 million.
Additionally, the company registered a profit after tax of €12.4 million, €1.8 million more than last year. This increase in profitability and general performance of the group was welcomed by the Board of Directors, particularly in view of the high inflation which impacted the payroll and supply chain.
“In the last few years, the pandemic and the war in Ukraine posed unprecedented challenges to business, particularly in the sectors in which we have a footprint,” db Group CEO Robert Debono said.
“Through careful management of costs and an enhanced focus on driving up revenues with strategic investments, we managed to perform strongly and ended the financial year in a considerably stronger position,” he added.
The group states that part of its success in increasing revenues and controlling costs came from the much-improved performance in the accommodation and leisure sectors. As the group emerged from pandemic, both recovered at a “faster rate than originally anticipated”.
db Group’s hotel portfolio occupancy increased to 85 per cent, which is even higher than the 81 per cent in the financial year ending 31st March 2020, the last pre-pandemic one.
In the food and beverage sector, db Group almost doubled its figures, reaching a turnover of €25.4 million compared to €14.1 million in the previous year. This was mainly due to the “exceptional performance” of Starbucks, as well as the opening of new restaurants, LOA in St Paul’s Bay, Tora and Manta in Sliema, and Verani at Malta International Airport.
The group’s annual report for the year can be downloaded by clicking here.
Meanwhile, db Group has also unveiled its new branding which incorporates db’s “signature of excellence and a new set of colours and fonts to reflect an outward-looking Maltese identity”.
With this revamped branding, db Group is now looking to expand internationally. A central London office has been set up to manage these strategic global investments. A new restaurant in Cavendish Square will be the group’s first foray beyond Maltese shores.
The group is now engaged in the preparatory stages to execute its signature project on the former ITS site in St George’s Bay, St Julian’s.
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