Orascom Hotels & Development’s (OHD) management held a conference call yesterday to discuss 2015 results, hosted by EFG Hermes. The main highlights of the call were: i) Management attributed the boost in gross profit margin (2015: 32.2%, 2014: 16.5%) to the closure of two sub-development agreements during the period; ii) negotiations are underway with banks to extend the recently approved two-year grace period agreement to three, capitalising on the CBE initiative announced last month; iii) the bulk of revenue from hotels and real estate is in foreign currency, which makes management comfortable about its ability to service debt; iv) 2016 launches: Fanadir Bay with a total sales value of USD60 million, set for 2Q2016 and launch EGP30 million products in 4Q2016; v) the company is studying a number of opportunities to expand into first and second home markets in Cairo and the North Coast; vi) hotel occupancy rates have been negatively impacted by the Russian plane crash and the subsequent travel bans imposed by Russia and a number of other European countries. Average occupancy rate in El Gouna declined from 58% to 51% in February and Makadi from 46% to 37%. (Company conference call, Mai Attia, Sara Boutros)