Highlights
“We have made a good start to the year, driving RevPAR up 1.5% against the background of weak oil markets and the earlier timing of Easter, which affected several of our markets.
We continued our focus on building and leveraging scale where it matters, signing rooms into our pipeline at the fastest rate since 2008. We also strengthened our position in the rapidly growing boutique segment, signing the first Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants property outside the Americas, in Amsterdam, and opening and signing a record number of rooms for our Hotel Indigo brand.
At the same time, we continue to evolve and enhance our leading loyalty programme, IHG Rewards Club. This week we announced that IHG Rewards Club members will be offered exclusive, preferential rates when they book through our direct channels. This new benefit further strengthens our loyalty offer by helping us build deeper relationships with our most loyal guests, whilst driving more direct bookings to our hotels.
Looking ahead, despite economic and political uncertainty in some markets, current trading trends and the momentum behind our brands give us confidence for the rest of the year.”
RevPAR was up 1.5%, with rate up 1.0% and occupancy up 0.3%pts. The shift in timing of Easter into Q1 had an adverse impact across the industry, especially in the Americas and Europe, which we expect to reverse in Q2.
RevPAR was up 1.9%. In the US RevPAR was up 1.5%, with occupancy levels of almost 65% on the back of record levels of industry demand. Performance continued to be impacted by our higher concentration of rooms in oil producing markets, where RevPAR was down 10.3%, compared to 3.2% growth in the rest of the estate. Elsewhere in the region, Mexico drove double digit RevPAR growth, we saw a solid performance across Latin America & the Caribbean, and Canada declined 0.4%.
RevPAR was up 1.4%. Germany and Russia/CIS, two of our priority markets, delivered mid-single digit RevPAR growth. France was down 2.3%, with double digit growth in the provinces, outweighed by declines in Paris. Flat RevPAR in the UK reflects a solid performance in the provinces, offset by softer industry-wide trading in London, predominantly due to supply increases.
RevPAR was down 1.1%. Performance in the region outside the Middle East was strong, with 5.0% RevPAR growth overall. Japan and India delivered double digit RevPAR growth; Australasia was up 5.9%; and Southeast Asia up 3.3% led by Vietnam, the Philippines and Thailand. In the Middle East RevPAR was down 10.4% due to the ongoing impact of low oil prices.
RevPAR was up 2.2%. Growth of 6.2% in mainland China was led by mainland tier one cities, where RevPAR was up 8.3%. This was partially offset by the ongoing industry-wide issues in Hong Kong and Macau where there were double digit declines.
The financial position of the group remains robust, with an ongoing commitment to an efficient balance sheet and an investment grade credit rating.
As previously announced, on 23 May we will return $1.5bn to shareholders by way of a special dividend with share consolidation, taking the total returned to shareholders since demerger in 2003 to $12.1bn.
The strengthening of the dollar over the last year reduced group RevPAR for the quarter to a 0.7% decline when reported at actual exchange rates. A breakdown of constant currency versus actual currency RevPAR by region is set out in Appendix 2.
1RevPAR growth is at constant exchange rates (CER) unless otherwise stated.
Download the Appendices for the First Quarter Trading Update PDF (0.06Mb) [http://www.ihgplc.com/files/results/results16Q1/q1_stock_exchange_announcement.pdf#page=3]
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A conference call with Paul Edgecliffe-Johnson (Chief Financial Officer) will commence at 9.00am London time on 6 May. There will be an opportunity to ask questions.
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There will also be a conference call, primarily for US investors and analysts, at 9.00am New York Time on 6 May with Paul Edgecliffe-Johnson (Chief Financial Officer). There will be an opportunity to ask questions.
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View Original for Full Data Table
Website:
The full release and supplementary data will be available on our website from 7.00am (London time) on 6 May. The web address www.ihgplc.com/Q1.
Download the First Quarter Trading Update PDF (0.06Mb)[http://www.ihgplc.com/files/results/results16Q1/q1_stock_exchange_announcement.pdf]
IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group) [LON:IHG, NYSE:IHG (ADRs)] is a global organisation with a broad portfolio of hotel brands, includingInterContinental® Hotels & Resorts, Kimpton® Hotels & Restaurants, HUALUXE™ Hotels and Resorts,Crowne Plaza® Hotels & Resorts, Hotel Indigo®,EVEN® Hotels, Holiday Inn® Hotels & Resorts,Holiday Inn Express®, Staybridge Suites® andCandlewood Suites®.
IHG franchises, leases, manages or owns more than 5,000 hotels and nearly 742,000 guest rooms in almost 100 countries, with nearly 1,400 hotels in its development pipeline. IHG also manages IHG® Rewards Club, the world’s first and largest hotel loyalty programme, with nearly 94 million members worldwide.
InterContinental Hotels Group PLC is the Group’s holding company and is incorporated in Great Britain and registered in England and Wales. More than 350,000 people work across IHG’s hotels and corporate offices globally.
Visit www.ihg.com for hotel information and reservations and www.ihgrewardsclub.com for more on IHG Rewards Club. For our latest news, visit:www.ihg.com/media and follow us on social media at:www.twitter.com/ihg, www.facebook.com/ihg andwww.youtube.com/ihgplc.
This announcement contains certain forward-looking statements as defined under United States law (Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934) and otherwise. These forward-looking statements can be identified by the fact that they do not relate only to historical or current facts. Forward-looking statements often use words such as ‘anticipate’, ‘target’, ‘expect’, ‘estimate’, ‘intend’, ‘plan’, ‘goal’, ‘believe’ or other words of similar meaning. These statements are based on assumptions and assessments made by InterContinental Hotels Group PLC’s management in light of their experience and their perception of historical trends, current conditions, expected future developments and other factors they believe to be appropriate. By their nature, forward-looking statements are inherently predictive, speculative and involve risk and uncertainty. There are a number of factors that could cause actual results and developments to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by, such forward-looking statements. The main factors that could affect the business and the financial results are described in the ‘Risk Factors’ section in the current InterContinental Hotels Group PLC’s Annual report and Form 20-F filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.
SOURCE IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group)
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) is a multinational company which operates several hotel brands.