Orient-Express Hotels Ltd. (OEH)
Q4 2008 Earnings Call Transcript
February 26, 2009 10:00 a.m. ET

Executives

Pippa Isbell - Vice President, Corporate Communications
Edwin S. Hetherington – Vice President, General Counsel & Secretary
Paul M. White - President & Chief Executive Officer
Martin O''Grady - Chief Financial Officer & Vice President, Finance

Analysts

Steven Kent - Goldman Sachs & Co.
Joseph Greff – JPMorgan
Chris Woronka - Deutsche Bank
William Truelove - UBS
Nitin Bhalotia - Leo Fund Managers
David Katz - Oppenheimer & Co.
Ross Haberman - Haberman Fund

Presentation

Operator

Welcome to the Orient-Express Hotels fourth quarter results conference call. My name is Sarah and I will be your coordinator for today''s conference. For the duration of the call, you will be on listen-only. However, at the end of the call, you will have the opportunity to ask questions. If at any time you need assistance, please press “*0” on your telephone keypad and you will be connected to an operator.

I''m now handing over to Pippa Isbell to begin today''s conference.

Pippa Isbell

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. As the operator indicated, this is the fourth quarter earnings conference call for Orient-Express Hotels. We issued our news release last night and it''s available on our website at www.orient-express.com as well as on the SEC website. For anyone who''s not yet seen it, the highlights are as follows.

Local currency same-store RevPAR down 16%. Total revenue before real estate was $107.8 million, down 26% on the prior year. The net loss from continuing operations was $43.5 million or $0.94 per common share. Non-recurring charges were $44.1 million or $0.95 per common share. Adjusted net earnings from continuing operations were $0.6 million or $0.01 per common share and adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations was $11.1 million.

On the call today are Jim Hurlock, Chairman of Orient-Express Hotels; Paul White, President and Chief Executive Officer; Martin O''Grady, Chief Financial Officer, and Ned Hetherington, Company Secretary, to whom I will now hand over for the usual announcement.

Edwin S. Hetherington

Good morning, everyone. Before we get started, I would like to read out our usual cautionary statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 in the United States.

In the course of remarks to you today by Orient-Express Hotels'' management and in answering your questions, they may make forward-looking statements concerning Orient-Express Hotels, such as its earnings outlook, future investment plans, and other matters that are not historic facts. We caution that actual results of Orient-Express Hotels may differ materially from these forward-looking statements.

Information about factors that could cause actual results to differ is set out in today''s news release, the company''s latest annual report to shareholders, and the filings of the company with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

That''s all I have; I''ll now turn the call over to Paul White, Chief Executive of Orient-Express Hotels.

Paul M. White

Thanks Ned. Good morning everybody and thanks for joining us today.