Mandarin Oriental, which holds the management contract for the Elbow Beach Hotel, saw its annual pre-tax profit rise $15 million to $55 million in 2002, the company reported this week.

Bermuda-registered Mandarin, part of the Jardine Matheson group, said the results were an improvement from the depressed conditions earlier in the year. Consolidated profit after tax and minority interests was $19 million, compared with $4 million in the previous year. Mandarin, which owns some of the world's best known hotels, said the majority of its hotels “enhanced their leadership positions in each respective marketplace as a result of the gradual recovery of occupancy levels over the year. In Asia, declining average rates, which affected most markets towards the end of 2001, stabilised during the year. In addition, a Mandarin spokesman said: “We did well to hold average rates steady in most of our properties in Europe and The Americas.”