Hotelest Ltd. said its first-quarter normalized net income came to 81 Mauritian cents per share, a gain of 7.2% from 75 cents per share in the prior-year period.

Normalized net income, which excludes unusual gains or losses on a pre- and after-tax basis, was 45.1 million rupees, a gain of 7.2% from 42.1 million rupees in the prior-year period.

The normalized profit margin climbed to 3.8% from 3.8% in the year-earlier period.

Total revenue rose 6.6% year over year to 1.18 billion rupees from 1.11 billion rupees, and total operating expenses rose 10.3% from the prior-year period to 825.6 million rupees from 748.4 million rupees.

Reported net income grew 11.3% from the prior-year period to 132.5 million rupees, or 2.37 rupees per share, from 119.0 million rupees, or 2.13 rupees per share.

As of May 13, US$1 was equivalent to 35.13 Mauritian rupees.