A trading update from the Hilton Group reports that pre-tax profits for the first four months of the year were 25 per cent lower than the same period last year.

It said that difficult trading conditions in the hotel division - hit by both the war in Iraq and fears of the SARS virus - were partially offset by a strong performance from Ladbroke's, where gross win increased by 14.3 per cent over the period.The company did not provide detailed information on the period's figures, other than to give an indication of like for like RevPar performance.

RevPar for March/April (combined due to the timing of Easter) at the London hotels was down 14.1 per cent on the same period in 2002, with the UK provinces down 1.8 per cent.Overseas, RevPar was down across all the divisions for March/April, with the Americas seeing a fall of 1.1 per cent; Middle East and Asia Pacific, 13.5 per cent and Europe and Africa, 16.1 per cent.

However, the group anticipates a return to year on year RevPar growth in the late summer of this year - with booking patterns having seen some improvement since the end of hostilities in the Middle East - and expects its full year performance to meet market expectations. Details: www.hiltongroup.com