Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.

ResortQuest
loses $6 mil amid
seasonal slowdown

A slow summer, Y2K issues
and a lack of snow at winter resorts
all added up to negative numbers

By Russ Lynch
Star-Bulletin

ResortQuest International Inc. today reported a fourth-quarter net loss of just under $6 million, or 32 cents a share, more than six times the loss of $934,000, or 5 cents a share, in the year-earlier quarter.

The vacation property rental and management company, whose subsidiaries include Aston Hotels & Resorts in Hawaii, said the downturn resulted from expected seasonal lows in businesses it acquired during 1999, the majority of which are summer resorts.

A travel slowdown related to Y2K issues and a lack of snow at the company's winter resorts also hurt the bottom line.

Fourth-quarter revenues of $23.2 million were ahead 20 percent from $19.4 million in the year-earlier quarter.

For all of 1999, ResortQuest had a net profit of $4.4 million, down 8 percent from a profit of $4.8 million in 1998.

Full-year per-share earnings were 24 cents, down 46 percent from 44 cents with nearly 80 percent more shares outstanding.

Boosted by acquisitions, revenues in 1999 totaled $127.9 million, up 131 percent from $55.4 million in 1998.

Year-over-year results are not directly comparable because of the different ways the Memphis, Tenn.-based company accounts for the Aston business, acquired in mid-1998, and later acquisitions.

The company said the total billings to its customers in Hawaii were down 2 percent at $136.8 million for 1999, compared with $139.8 million in 1998.