5 Things To Know for Nov. 20

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The Egyptian Stock Exchange benchmark index, the EGX30, reached a record high in Nov. 19 trading to almost 24,899.59 points, according to Egypt Today. Misr Hotels had the top gains with a 20% rise in value.

The news source said the stock exchange saw almost 1.6 billion shares traded and the exchange’s value increase by 32 billion Egyptian pounds ($1 billion). Cairo-based Misr Hotels, founded in 1955, currently owns two hotels, the 229-rooms Nile Ritz-Carlton, Cairo, and, in Sinai, the 159-room Safir Dahab Resort Hotel.

The High Court of Himachal Pradesh has quashed an order by the Indian state’s government to appoint an administrator for the 85-room Wildflower Hall, an Oberoi Resort, Shimla. The court found the state government’s actions were a breach of court orders.

According to the newspaper, the judge stayed the takeover of the property, stopping the state government from getting involved in the day-to-day management of the hotel.

The hotel is the former estate of Lord Kitchener of Khartoum (Sudan), commander in chief of the British Army. The chairman of Oberoi Hotels & Resorts, Prithvi Raj Singh Oberoi, died on Nov. 14.

October retail sales volumes in the United Kingdom fell to their lowest point since February 2021, when the country was in lockdown, according to official figures from the government’s Office for National Statistics. Spending fell 0.3% year over year, following a 1.1% fall in September.

As often is the case in the U.K., the weather is partly to blame. Heather Bovill, deputy director for survey and economic indicators at the ONS, said “it was another poor month for household goods and clothes stores with these retailers reporting that cost of living pressures, reduced footfall and poor weather hit them hard.”

The U.S. National Weather Service Prediction Center reported a “vigorous upper-level trough” moving over western states will send inclement weather to eastern states early this week, potentially disrupting travel for the Thanksgiving holiday, the New York Times reports.

As the weather system moves toward the Lower Mississippi Valley, the Weather Service warns of an increased chance of severe weather, including damaging winds, large hail and tornadoes. There’s a chance of widespread rain and thunderstorms for the Midwest, Ohio Valley and Tennessee Valley as well. The Weather Service in Boston reported the possibility of high-elevation snow Tuesday and Wednesday for southern New England.

Hotel investors in Europe bemoan a lack of conviction in the market, a feeling at odds with that of operators, who are seeing record increases in average daily rate and revenue per available room, reports HNN’s Terence Baker from Alvarez & Marsal’s European Hospitality Investment Conference in London. Increases in occupancy are almost at pre-2019 levels, furthering the difference in mood, according to conference speakers who said that even in the recovered luxury and upper-upscale segment there are few hotels up for sale.

David Mongeau, chairman and founder of London-based Avington, said “things are so expensive, you cannot do a new build, and if you buy land, you have to get the entitlement, and you can only do that if you have the right location. There are deals, but there is a lot of slogging, and you need good advisers.”

Rob Stapleton, head of hotel capital markets at business advisory Savills, added “investor criteria is the biggest conversation we have at the moment. There is a lack of conviction in the market, [which is] understandable due to what economies have gone through, and the bid-ask space continues to be wide.”

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