Hotel giant InterContinental (IHG) has started its new financial year strongly after delivering an impressive set of full-year numbers.
The hotel group enjoyed a bumper 5.2 per cent increase in revenue-per-available-room (RevPAR) over the year built on rate rises of 3.2 per cent and a 1.2 percentage point improvement in occupancy levels. While third-quarter RevPAR growth slowed, coming in at 3.9 per cent, there appears to be little reason to worry about prospects. Indeed, RevPAR jumped 6.6 per cent in January, helped by the earlier timing of the Chinese New Year, which resulted in 21 per cent growth in Greater China, a region which accounts for 10 per cent of group profit.
Performance in the Americas, which contributes 63 per cent of profit, was impressive and should be helped in 2013 by the relatively limited number of new hotels openings. Following 6.1 per cent RevPAR growth in the region last year, InterContinental reported an impressive 7 per cent rise in January. Trading in Europe has been weaker, but looks stable.
There was no major news on the sale of the New York Barclay and the InterContinental London Park Lane sale process is now under way. Broker Panmure Gordon believes proceeds from the sales could fund a $1bn share buy-back programme.
| InterContinental Hotels (IHG) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 1,938p | MARKET VALUE: | £5.2bn | |
| TOUCH: | 1,936-1,938p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 2,009p | LOW: 1,375p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 2.1% | PE RATIO: | 16 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 115¢* | NET DEBT: | $1.1bn | |
| Year to 30 Sep | Turnover ($bn) | Pre-tax profit ($m) | Earnings per share (c) | Dividend per share (c) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 1.90 | 316 | 91 | 41.4 |
| 2009 | 1.54 | -64.0 | 73 | 41.4 |
| 2010 | 1.63 | 397 | 101 | 48.0 |
| 2011 | 1.77 | 532 | 159 | 55.0 |
| 2012 | 1.84 | 556 | 190 | 64.0 |
| % change | +4 | +5 | +19 | +16 |
Ex-div: 20 Mar Payment: 31 May £1 = $1.549 *Includes intangible assets of £447m, or 167¢ a share | ||||
