Queens Moat chief checking out

ANDREW Coppel, chief executive of troubled hotels group Queens Moat Houses, is stepping down in the midst of another strategic review.

Coppel, who is paid £371,000 a year, will leave at the end of next month. Although he is on a two-year rolling contract, he said that he would not 'hold the company to that' when negotiating his pay-off.

When Coppel came on board QMH in 1993, debt stood at £1.4bn. Today, it is £632m. But the group has been hit by falling revenue at its 89 hotels in the UK, Germany and the Netherlands in what he describes as 'the worst period for hotels catering to businessmen in 10 years'.

Yields at its 6000 bedrooms declined 2.7% in the UK, 10.1% in Germany and 10.2% in the Netherlands in the first 26 weeks of the current financial year.

Coppel blames the debt legacy he inherited for QMH's problems. Disposals will now be an option, he said, as businessmen deserted in droves in the first six months of the year, reducing revenue with which to service the debt.

In the remaining weeks of his job, until he is succeeded by corporate development director Stuart Metcalfe, Coppel will be seeking 'significant modification to certain terms of the existing debt'. Cazenove and Deloitte &Touche will advise on the refinancing.

QMH shares fell 1/2p, or 5%, to 9 3/4p.