IHG banks on China to spur its expansion
INTERCONTINENTAL Hotels Group, the world’s largest hotel operator, said it was is looking to emerging markets and especially China to drive future growth as a recovery in the US helped the group post a surge in full-year profits.
The owner of brands including Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza said US and Chinese demand helped boost profits by 26 per cent in the year to 31 December to $559m (£356m), offsetting a slowdown in trading in the Eurozone.
Revenue per available room (revpar) — the key industry metric — fell by 0.2 per cent in Europe in the last quarter of 2011.
However, Tom Singer, IHG’s chief financial officer, said some of the “softness” seen at the end of last year had been reversed in January, with revpar rising six per cent for the group overall.
IHG revpar rose by 6.2 per cent over the full-year, with the US up 7.9 per cent, Europe up 4.7 per cent and Greater China storming ahead with 10.7 per cent. Political unrest meant its Asia, Middle East and Africa arm only edged up 0.9 per cent.
The hotelier boosted its room count by two per cent worldwide to 658,000 rooms in 4,480 hotels. It has a further 1,144 hotels in its global pipeline, with over a quarter of those being built in Greater China.
The group also upped its full-year dividend by 15 per cent to $0.55.
Shares fell 2.1 per cent to 1,372p.