By Richard Lough

ANTANANARIVO, Oct 28 (Reuters) - Mauritius-based Naiade Resorts posted a sharp increase in net losses for the first nine months of 2009 on Wednesday and warned of an uncertain outlook for the months ahead.

The luxury-hotel group, which owns hotels in Mauritius, Reunion and the Maldives, said it made a net loss of 357.82 million rupees ($11.8 million) in the period, up from a loss of 29.33 million rupees in same period last year.

'The performance of our hotels along with the industry in general continues to be affected by the global economic slowdown. Despite an increase in room capacity, the group's revenue for the nine months stagnated at rupees 1.7 billion,' it said in a statement.

'The global financial crisis is impacting on all our main markets and forecasting remains very difficult with low visibility for the coming months.'

Tourism is a key driver of the Indian Ocean island's $9 billion economy and a major source of foreign exchange. But long-haul high-end destinations like Mauritius have suffered as the global slump changes consumer spending habits.

Naiade Resort said it had decided not to declare a final dividend for the year ending Dec. 31, 2009 due to the uncertain economic climate.

The group's stock closed Wednesday's trading down 2.26 percent at 47.50 rupees per share after a week of profit taking, but the price has more than doubled from a Feb. 11 low of 17 rupees.

Traders say Mauritian hotel stocks remain expensive on a price to earnings basis and look set to remain volatile.

Basic earnings per share for the period fell to a loss of 4.16 rupees from a loss of 0. 34 rupees during the same period last year.

The group said its total assets increased by 35.30 percent to 8.93 billion rupees.

Naiade Resorts owns hotels in Mauritius, Reunion and the Maldives.

(Editing by Daniel Wallis and Greg Mahlich) (For more Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://af.reuters.com/) Keywords: MAURITIUS HOTEL/

(Email: nairobi.newsroom@reuters.com; tel: +254 20 222 4717)

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