RNS Number : 9604X

InterContinental Hotels Group PLC

03 May 2019

3 May 2019

InterContinental Hotels Group PLC

2019 First Quarter Trading Update

Highlights

·      5.4% YoY net system size growth to 843k rooms, 12k rooms opened

·      24k rooms signed, strongest Q1 pace for 12 years, including 2.7k rooms from acquisition of Six Senses

·      Global Q1 comparable RevPAR[1] up 0.3% with US RevPAR up 0.6%

Keith Barr, Chief Executive of InterContinental Hotels Group PLC, said:

"Our strategic focus on driving industry leading net rooms growth is delivering strong results, with our net system size increasing 5.4% in the first quarter and our highest number of signings in 12 years. Global RevPAR increased 0.3% against strong prior year results, with good growth in the US where we outperformed the industry segments where we compete, and continued market share gains in China.

Our highest first quarter hotel openings in a decade included our 400th hotel in Greater China. More than 60% of openings globally were in the Holiday Inn Brand Family, driven by our focus on innovative design and service enhancements which is leading to improved guest satisfaction across our highly preferred portfolio of global brands.

We have continued to expand our brand portfolio into high-opportunity segments and markets. In mainstream, we now have over 180 avid hotels signed and will launch our all-suites upper midscale brand in the US later this month. Our upscale conversion brand voco, is seeing strong owner interest with 5 hotels now open and a further 12 signed since launch last year. Our recent acquisition of Six Senses rounds out our offer in the top tier of luxury.

The investments we are making to enable this acceleration in growth are funded through our efficiency programme, which is on track to deliver $125m of annual savings by 2020. While macro-economic and geopolitical uncertainties remain in some markets, the strong fundamentals of our business give us confidence for the balance of the year."

First Quarter performance

Group

RevPAR was up 0.3%, with rate up 0.6% and occupancy down 0.2%pts.

Americas

Comparable RevPAR was up 0.8% driven by 1.2% rate growth. US RevPAR was up 0.6% despite tough comparables from hurricane related demand in Q1 2018. Elsewhere in the region, Canada was up 1% with continued strength in the western provinces. RevPAR in Latin America and the Caribbean was up 10% with strong growth in Colombia, Brazil and Argentina. Mexico RevPAR was down 2%.

We opened 4.9k rooms (37 hotels) in the quarter including an InterContinental hotel in Houston. We continue to focus on enhancing the quality of our hotel estate and removed 3.6k rooms (25 hotels). Together, this drove a 2.9% increase in our net system size. We signed 7.5k rooms (70 hotels) including 16 for the Staybridge Suites brand.

Europe, Middle East, Asia & Africa

Comparable RevPAR was down 0.7% with solid growth in Europe offset by softness in the Middle East and South Korea. Excluding these two markets, RevPAR would have been up 1%.

UK RevPAR was up 2% with London up 4% and the Provinces flat. Continental Europe was up 1%. In France, RevPAR was down 3%, with performance impacted by social unrest in Paris. RevPAR in Germany was up 2%.

Trading conditions in the Middle East continued to remain challenging with RevPAR down 4% driven by increased supply and political unrest. South Korea RevPAR fell 30% due to lapping the Winter Olympic games of Q1 2018.

Australia RevPAR was down 2% with the region impacted by supply growth in certain cities. Japan RevPAR was up 2% benefitting from good transient and corporate demand in key cities.

We opened 3.8k rooms (33 hotels), including 1.2k rooms (15 hotels) from the acquisition of Six Senses, driving 7.5% net rooms growth. We signed 6.2k rooms (51 hotels) including 2.0k rooms (26 hotels) from the acquisition of Six Senses.

Greater China

RevPAR was flat in Q1 due to a strong prior year performance in Q1 2018 when RevPAR was up 11%. In Mainland China we significantly outperformed the market. Tier 1 and 2 cities saw marginal RevPAR growth whilst Tier 3 and 4 cities were down 3% partly due to the continued impact of new supply in Sanya. RevPAR in Hong Kong SAR and Macau SAR was up 1% and 3% respectively driven by rate growth.

We opened 3.7k rooms (18 hotels), driving 13.2% net rooms growth including the first Kimpton in the region in Taipei. Signings totalled 9.8k rooms (52 hotels), our best first quarter performance in 13 years, and included an InterContinental and EVEN hotel in Zhangjiakou and the Kimpton Beijing Dashilar. Owner demand for our Holiday Inn Express Franchise Plus offering remains strong, with 21 hotels signed in the quarter and a further 6 franchised hotels signed for Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn.

Strategic progress

Good progress has been made against our strategic priorities to drive industry leading net rooms growth over the medium term.

Build and leverage scale

·      Net system size up 5.4% year on year to 843k rooms (5,656 hotels), including 1.3k rooms (16 hotels) from the acquisition of Six Senses Hotels Resorts Spas.

·      12k rooms opened in the quarter; 11k excluding the acquisition of Six Senses - up 39% on the prior year and includes our highest ever Q1 openings in Greater China. 6.1k rooms (35 hotels) were removed from the system.

·      24k rooms signed; 21k rooms excluding 2.7k rooms from the acquisition of Six Senses - our strongest Q1 rooms signings since 2007.

·      Pipeline now stands at 279k rooms.

Optimise our preferred portfolio of brands for owners and guests

·      Mainstream - enhancing our offer:

-    Holiday Inn: Continued roll out of new "Open Lobby" public space in Europe with our 100^th Holiday Inn Open Lobby hotel recently opened in Belfast.

-    avid hotels: More than 180 avid hotels now signed, including 12 hotels (1.2k rooms) signed in Q1 2019, one of which was in Germany. With 46 avid hotels currently under construction or with planning approved, we expect openings to gather momentum through the year.

-    New 'all-suites' upper midscale brand: On track for launch later this month at our Americas owners conference.

·      Upscale - growing our offer:

-    Crowne Plaza: Strong momentum behind Plaza Workspaces with new modern design and dynamic meeting space launched in our Atlanta flagship hotel.

-    Hotel Indigo: Signed 8 hotels including 4 in the Americas, taking the total pipeline to 99 hotels (14.4k rooms).

-    voco: Launched brand in June 2018, primarily for conversion opportunities. Five hotels now open including a flagship property in Dubai. A further 12 hotels have been signed to date (3.4k rooms in total).

·      Luxury - expanding our portfolio:

-    Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants: Following the opening of the UK flagship, the Kimpton Fitzroy London, we expanded our presence across the UK with the opening of our first Kimpton Hotel in Scotland. We also opened the first Kimpton Hotel in Asia-Pacific, the Kimpton Da An Hotel, Taipei.

-    Regent Hotels & Resorts: Strong owner interest, with signings in Chengdu and Bali during the quarter.

-    Six Senses Hotels Resorts Spas: Completed acquisition of 16 hotels and resorts, with 18 management contracts signed into its pipeline, and more than 50 further deals under discussion. Since acquisition, we have opened Six Senses Hotels in Bhutan and Cambodia.

Financial position and capital allocation

The financial position of the group remains robust, with an on-going commitment to an efficient balance sheet and an investment grade credit rating.

Foreign exchange

The strengthening of the US dollar against many major currencies globally decreased group RevPAR to a decline of 2.0% in the quarter, when reported at actual exchange rates.  A breakdown of constant vs. actual currency RevPAR by region is set out in Appendix 2.

Appendix 1: First quarter RevPAR movement summary

	Q1 2019
	RevPAR	Rate	Occ.
Group	0.3%	0.6%	(0.2)%pts
Americas	0.8%	1.2%	(0.3)%pts
EMEAA	(0.7)%	(0.7)%	0.0%pts
G. China	0.0%	0.2%	(0.1)%pts

Appendix 2: RevPAR at constant exchange rates (CER) vs. actual exchange rates (AER)

	Q1 2019
	CER	AER	Difference
Group	0.3%	(2.0)%	2.3%pts
Americas	0.8%	0.2%	0.6%pts
EMEAA	(0.7)%	(6.3)%	5.6%pts
G. China	0.0%	(4.9)%	4.9%pts

Appendix 3: Q1 system & pipeline summary (rooms)
	System					Pipeline
	Openings	Removals	Net	Total	YoY%	Signings	Total
Group	12,325	(6,107)	6,218	842,759	5.4%	23,526	278,712
Americas	4,891	(3,593)	1,298	511,427	2.9%	7,509	120,850
EMEAA	3,782	(1,087)	2,695	213,794	7.5%	6,170	75,033
G. China	3,652	(1,427)	2,225	117,538	13.2%	9,847	82,829
Appendix 4: Definitions
AER: Actual exchange rates used for each respective period. CER: Constant exchange rates. RevPAR: Revenue per available room.

For further information, please contact:
Investor Relations (Heather Wood; Matthew Kay; Rakesh Patel):		+44 (0)1895 512176	+44 (0)7527 419431
Media Relations (Yasmin Diamond; Mark Debenham):		+44 (0)1895 512097	+44 (0)7527 424046
Conference call for Analysts and Shareholders: A conference call with Paul Edgecliffe-Johnson (Chief Financial Officer) will commence at 9.00am London time on 3 May and can be accessed on https://www.ihgplc.com/investors/2019-q1-teleconference-detail. There will be an opportunity to ask questions.
International dial-in UK dial-in US dial-in Passcode	+44 203 936 2999 +44 (0) 203 936 2999 +1 855 979 6654 910 759
A replay of the 9.00am conference call will be available for 7 days from 11:30am London time - details are below:
International dial-in UK dial-in US dial-in Replay pin	+44 203 936 3001 +44 (0) 203 936 3001 +1 845 709 8569 831 989

Website:

The full release and supplementary data will be available on our website from 7.00am (London time) on 3 May. The web address is www.ihgplc.com/investors/results-and-presentations.

Notes to Editors:

IHG^® (InterContinental Hotels Group) [LON:IHG, NYSE:IHG (ADRs)] is a global organisation with a broad portfolio of hotel brands, including Six Senses Hotels Resorts Spas, Regent Hotels & Resorts, InterContinental^® Hotels & Resorts, Kimpton^® Hotels & Restaurants, Hotel Indigo^®, EVEN^® Hotels, HUALUXE^® Hotels and Resorts, Crowne Plaza^® Hotels & Resorts, voco™, Holiday Inn^®, Holiday Inn Express^®, Holiday Inn Club Vacations^®, Holiday Inn Resort^®, avid™ hotels, Staybridge Suites^® and Candlewood Suites^®.

IHG franchises, leases, manages or owns more than 5,600 hotels and nearly 843,000 guest rooms in more than 100 countries, with over 1,900 hotels in its development pipeline. IHG also manages IHG^® Rewards Club, our global loyalty programme, which has more than 100 million enrolled members.  

InterContinental Hotels Group PLC is the Group's holding company and is incorporated in Great Britain and registered in England and Wales. More than 400,000 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.ihgplc.com/media and follow us on social media at: https://twitter.com/ihgcorporate, www.facebook.com/ihgcorporate and www.linkedin.com/company/intercontinental-hotels-group.

Cautionary note regarding forward-looking statements:

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.

 

[1] RevPAR growth is at constant exchange rates (CER) unless otherwise stated.                

This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please contact rns@lseg.com or visit www.rns.com.

END

TSTEAESAEDENEAF