A recent article in The Shift placed renewed scrutiny on International Hotel Investments (IHI), owner of the Corinthia Hotels brand, after it revealed the scale of debt now carried by one of Malta’s best-known hospitality groups.
The Maltese investigative outlet reported on 11 June that IHI had returned to the bond market while holding almost €790 million in debt. That’s a significant debt burden for any company, but for a hotel group that has spent a decade struggling to turn expansion into consistent profits, it is a clear warning sign.
These figures contradict Corinthia Group’s expansion story. Despite the company’s best efforts to maintain the appearance of continued international growth and present positive numbers in its annual financial reports, recent figures point to severe financial difficulties that cast doubt on the company’s financial health.
Corinthia’s financial annual reports: a closer examination
A closer reading of Corinthia’s public accounts suggests that the nearly €800 million debt reported on the Shift is just the tip of the iceberg. The company has reported net losses every year since at least 2014. By 2024, accumulated losses had reached €46 million. Persistent losses weaken a company’s ability to fund growth from its own operations and make it increasingly reliant on lenders, investors, and refinancing.
Corinthia’s own actions suggest those pressures were understood internally. Dividends have not been paid since 2019, an apparent recognition of the company’s financial struggles. Then in 2022, Corinthia underwent bruising cuts to staffing when the Board instructed a deliberate reduction to staffing targeted at keeping headcount at least 15% below 2019 levels.
In spite of the apparent financial reality, Corinthia’s expansion continued. New Corinthia-branded projects have been promoted all the way from Rome in Europe, through Asia, and most notably entered the market in the Middle East’s tourism capital – Dubai. Corinthia’s international expansion story is difficult to reconcile with its clear financial difficulties, raising serious questions over the financial prudence of the company’s expansion strategy.
In fact, Corinthia’s latest financial annual report shows that net debt was more than 11 times EBITDA, a level widely regarded as high by international lending standards. Put simply, the company’s borrowings appear far larger than the earnings available to support them.
Borrowing can be sensible when it funds growth that later pays for itself. But when a company is already facing consistent financial losses, every new refinancing begins to look less like confidence and more like survival. As of 2024, interest costs consumed much of the operating profit needed to service the debt, leaving Corinthia with less room for error and even fewer ways to absorb another shock.
Auditing Corinthia’s finances: cause for concern?
EU Reporter has previously reported that PwC’s auditors’ report does not appear to flag the near ~€800 million debt or the latest bond market return as a specific audit concern, leaving open whether investors were alerted to the scale of the risk.
The picture is therefore not simply of an ambitious hotel group temporarily carrying high debt. It is of a company that has spent years losing money, cutting dividends and staff, borrowing to keep expanding, and relying on asset revaluations to help its financial reports stay afloat. With more bonds due in 2026 and debt forecast to approach €880 million, the question is no longer whether Corinthia is expanding. It is how much longer can its financial model withstand the weight of deception