InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) has reported solid revenue growth driven by both RevPAR and rooms for Interim Results to 30 June 2016.
The first half of 2016 delivered a 10% increase in underlying operating profit and an 11% increase in underlying EPS, underpinning the firm's decision to increase the interim dividend by 9%.
For the period, there was a 3.6% net room growth in like-for-likes, with 17k room openings, which is an uplift of 8%.
There was an £9.01bn total gross revenue from hotels in IHG’s system (up 1.7% year on year; up 4.0% CER).
In Europe, the firm opened 1k rooms (3 hotels) and signed 4k rooms (24 hotels), the latter being the best performance for the half since 2008. This included the 694-room Holiday Inn London – Kensington.
Richard Solomons, Chief Executive, said, “We continue to execute our well-established strategy as we deliver consistent, high-quality growth and generate significant operating cash flows.
'We have driven another excellent signings performance, which includes a second hotel for Kimpton outside the Americas, in Paris. We enhanced our loyalty proposition, continued to develop our technological capabilities and grew our digital channels, supporting our unique owner proposition. We have also remained focused on innovating and evolving our brand portfolio, which includes launching the latest phase of the Crowne Plaza refresh in the US.
'The fundamentals for our industry, and particularly for IHG as one of the largest branded players, remain compelling. This backdrop, combined with our winning strategy and the strength of our business model, will enable us to deliver sustainable growth into the future. Despite the uncertain environment in some markets, we remain confident in the outlook for the remainder of the year.”