| 2 Forward-looking statements This presentation contains, in addition to historical information, forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. These include statements regarding earnings outlook, investment plans, debt reduction, asset sales and similar matters that are not historical facts. These statements are based on management's current expectations and are subject to a number of uncertainties and risks that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. Factors that may cause a difference include, but are not limited to, those mentioned in the presentation, unknown effects on the travel and leisure markets of terrorist activity and any police or military response, varying customer demand and competitive considerations, failure to realize hotel bookings and reservations and planned property development sales as actual revenue, inability to sustain price increases or to reduce costs, rising fuel costs adversely impacting customer travel and the Company's operating costs, fluctuations in interest rates and currency values, uncertainty of completing proposed asset sales, inability to reduce funded debt as planned or to agree bank loan agreement waivers or amendments, adequate sources of capital and acceptability of finance terms made more difficult by the current crisis in financial markets and by weakening national economies, possible loss or amendment of planning permits and delays in construction schedules for expansion or development projects, delays in reopening properties closed for repair or refurbishment and possible cost overruns, shifting patterns of tourism and business travel and seasonality of demand, adverse local weather conditions, changing global and regional economic conditions including economic downturns in many parts of the world and weakness in financial markets, legislative, regulatory and political developments, and possible continuing challenges to the Company's corporate governance structure. Further information regarding these and other factors is included in the filings by the Company with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Management evaluates the operating performance of the Company's segments on the basis of segment net earnings before interest, foreign currency, tax (including tax on unconsolidated companies), depreciation and amortization (segment EBITDA), and believes that segment EBITDA is a useful measure of operating performance, for example to help determine the ability to incur capital expenditure or service indebtedness, because it is not affected by non-operating factors such as leverage and the historic cost of assets. EBITDA is also a financial performance measure commonly used in the hotel and leisure industry, although the Company's segment EBITDA may not be comparable in all instances to that disclosed by other companies. Segment EBITDA does not represent net cash provided by operating, investing and financing activities under U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (U.S. GAAP), is not necessarily indicative of cash available to fund all cash flow needs, and should not be considered as an alternative to earnings from operations or net earnings under U.S. GAAP for purposes of evaluating operating performance. |
