A trading statement issued by the Hilton Group shows group profit for the four months to 31 October – before tax, goodwill and exceptionals – up by 15.1 per cent.

This was mainly due to a strong performance from the group’s betting division, where ‘over the counter’ trade, which excludes machines and terminals, saw gross win continue to increase, with year to date growth of over 6 per cent.

The company said it was “obviously good news” that the future of fixed odds betting terminals had been resolved but that it needed to operate under the new guidelines to see what sort of an effect it would have on profits.

Hotel performance was weaker than at the same time last year, although an overall year on year improvement in RevPAR has been seen since August. Trading in the UK, the Middle East and Asia Pacific is looking more positive but remains difficult in the main continental European gateway cities and Scandinavia.

London 5-star RevPAR was up by 3.6 per cent over the period compared with 2002, but London 4-star was down 2.6 per cent and the UK provinces down 2.4.

Europe & Africa, Middle East, Asia Pacific and the Americas all saw a rise in RevPAR, increasing by 6.5, 10.9, 4.3 and 3.5 per cent respectively.

The company’s Scandic brand saw a drop of 7.2 per cent. Details: www.hilton.com