InterContinental Hotels Group announced a surge in annual net profits after offloading establishments in Paris and Hong Kong, while a solid underlying performance resulted in large dividend pay outs, Agence France-Presse reported.
Profit after tax more than trebled to US$1.22 billion (1.11 billion euros) in 2015 compared with US$391 million one year earlier, IHG said in an earnings statement.
The owner of the Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn brands last year sold two large hotels, InterContinental’s Le Grand and InterContinental Hong Kong.
As a result of lower room space, group revenue fell 3.0 percent to US$1.8 billion in 2015.
But global RevPAR rose by 4.4 percent, driven by growth in Europe that helped to offset stable demand at IHG hotels in China.
“Looking into the medium term, despite economic and political uncertainty in some markets, the prospects for the hotel industry remain good and the strength of our business model gives us the confidence to propose a 10 percent increase in total dividend for the year,” said chief executive Richard Solomons.
“Intercontinental Hotels Group has now sold the last of its major owned hotels, to become an almost pure-play hotel management and franchising company,” noted Steve Clayton, head of equity research at stockbrokers Hargreaves Lansdown.
“IHG is collecting revenues from the hotels, in one form or another, without tying up capital by actually owning the properties.”
IHG profit surges
