IHG has reported its Preliminary Results for the year to 31 December 2014, describing it as an excellent year with strong financial performance and continued delivery of its winning strategy.
Richard Solomons, Chief Executive of InterContinental Hotels Group PLC, commented:
“2014 was an excellent year for IHG as we delivered against our long-term winning strategy for high quality growth. We achieved strong RevPAR performance of 6.1%, and our best net system size growth since 2009 of 3.4%, increasing our operating profit on an underlying basis by 10%.
“We remain committed to reducing the capital intensity of the business and maintaining an efficient balance sheet with disposal proceeds received in the year of almost $400m and shareholder returns, including ordinary dividends, of over $1bn. We are proposing an increase in the total dividend for the year of 10%.
“We expanded our brand portfolio and strengthened our position in boutique hotels, the fastest growing segment in the industry over the last five years, with the acquisition of Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants. The first properties for our innovative, consumer focused, EVEN Hotels and HUALUXE Hotels and Resorts brands are now open. Significant growth milestones were achieved across our established brands as we continue to strengthen our scale positions in the most important global markets.
“Looking into 2015, we face many macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainties, but are confident that our strategy for high quality growth coupled with the momentum in the business positions us well for continued strong performance.”
Financial summary | Reported | Underlying at FY13 constant rates | ||||
2014 | 2013 | %Change | 2014 | 2013 | %Change | |
Revenue | $1,858m | $1,903m | (2)% | $1,667m | $1,573m | 6% |
Fee revenue | $1,255m | $1,176m | 7% | $1,261m | $1,176m | 7% |
Operating profit | $651m | $668m | (3)% | $648m5 | $591m | 10% |
Adjusted EPS | 158.3¢ | 158.3¢ | – | 155.4¢ | 138.5¢ | 12% |
Basic EPS | 158.3¢ | 140.9¢ | 12% | – | – | – |
Total dividend per share | 77.0¢ | 70.0¢ | 10% | – | – | – |
Net debt | $1,533m | $1,153m | – | – | – | – |
Financial Highlights
- Strong underlying financial performance
- Strong annual RevPAR performance with global comparable RevPAR up 6.1%, led by 7.4% growth in the Americas. Q4 global comparable RevPAR growth of 5.1%, with 7.0% growth in the Americas.
- $23bn total gross revenue from hotels in IHG’s system (up 6% year on year; 7% CER).
- Underlying fee revenue up 7% and operating profit up 10% driven by strong trading and enhanced productivity. Reported operating profit down 3% reflecting owned hotel disposals and 2013 liquidated damages.
- Group fee-based margin up 1.5%pts to 44.7%, benefiting from strong growth in our scale markets. We will continue to invest for long-term growth in developing markets in 2015.
Strategic Progress
- Enhancing our portfolio of preferred brands
- Significant milestones reached across our brand family including the 400th Crowne Plaza, the 200th Staybridge Suites, the 60th Hotel Indigo in its 10th anniversary year, opening of the first two properties for the wellness-focused EVEN Hotels, and over 100 open and pipeline hotels for the Holiday Inn Express brand in China.
- Acquisition of Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants LLC (“Kimpton”) completed in January 2015. Along with Hotel Indigo and EVEN Hotels, creates industry’s leading lifestyle & boutique business with over 200 open and pipeline hotels.
- First hotel for the HUALUXE Hotels and Resorts brand opened in February 2015.
- Building and leveraging scale
- 710k rooms open at year end (722k including Kimpton) as we delivered our strongest net system size growth since 2009 of 3.4% with 41k rooms opened, and 18k rooms removed.
- Highest signings in six years of 70k rooms into our 194k room pipeline (197k including Kimpton).
- 85% of open rooms and 89% of pipeline in our 10 priority markets.
- 5% share of global industry supply, 13% share of active industry pipeline; well positioned to drive future growth.
- Driving revenue delivery through technology and digital channels
- 71% room revenue delivered by direct and indirect channels, including $4bn of digital revenues. 50% growth in mobile bookings to over $900m.
- Increased personalisation and redemption offers for 84m IHG Rewards Club members.
- Improved our number one rated mobile app with launch of mobile check-in and check-out at over 500 hotels.
- Established strategic relationship with Amadeus to develop innovative and efficient technology solutions.
- Commitment to efficient balance sheet and driving shareholder returns
- Year end net debt / EBITDA of 2.1x; 2.6x following completion of Kimpton acquisition.
- Over $1bn returned to shareholders during 2014; 11% increase in final dividend to 52¢.
Europe – Strong trading performance in the UK and Germany
Europe contributed 11% of our operating profit before central overheads in the year. Our business in Europe is focused on growth in our priority markets of the UK, Germany, Russia and the CIS, and the top 50 European cities, which contribute approximately 85% of our total fee revenues in the region.
Comparable RevPAR increased 5.1% with growth in both ADR and occupancy; fourth quarter RevPAR increased 4.2%. Trading was particularly strong in the UK, up 8.9%, with low double digit growth in the provinces and high single digit growth in London. Germany also performed well with RevPAR up 4.1%. We outperformed the industry in Russia and the CIS, but fee income declined by $3m in 2014, due to the challenging economic environment and currency devaluation in the second half.
On an underlying basis, revenue increased 1% and operating profit increased 3%. This reflects good growth in the franchise business, which delivered 11% operating profit growth. This was partially offset by a decline in profit at InterContinental Paris – Le Grand, during the refurbishment of its historic Salon Opera ballroom in the first half of 2014. Reported revenue decreased 7% (7% CER) to $374m and operating profit decreased 15% (13% CER) to $89m due to the disposal of owned assets and receipt of significant liquidated damages in 2013.
Openings of 5k rooms (35 hotels) included two landmark InterContinental hotels; one in Dublin, Ireland, which was both signed and opened in December and the other in Lisbon, Portugal. We also opened four new properties for the Hotel Indigo brand in prime city locations of Paris, Madrid, Rome and St Petersburg. We signed 8k rooms (48 hotels) into our pipeline, including 2k rooms (12 hotels) in Germany, our strongest ever level of signings in the market driven by our multi-development agreement partners and the use of recyclable capital investment.
2015:
We have recently streamlined our mainstream Europe managed business, which will result in the transfer of most of our UK managed hotels to franchise contracts, and allows us to accelerate the growth of our business in this priority market. 21 hotels transferred during 2014, and the balance will transfer in 2015. If this change had been in place for the full year, managed and franchised EBIT would have been $8m lower and $10m higher respectively, and we expect UK franchised income from these hotels to rise by a further $3m in the medium-term as a result of these changes.
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