If you want to make a few quid in time for crimbo take a look at these.

IHG have announced a massive sale of their largest and less profitable hotels. They will be focussing on hotel management rather than ownership and most of the proceeds of the sales will be returned to shareholders.

They announced a 250million share buy back in August that kick started the share price and so far they have bought back and cancelled about 210m. In the results in mid September they announced a further 250m buy back of shares and a futher 500m to be given back to shareholders in a December dividend on the proceeds from the sales. Depending on how quickly the disposals happen, there may be even more cash returned.

Many brokers have upgraded their targets to well over 700p (Barclays have a target of 800p). The SP has been consolidating around 630p for a week or so ready for the next push upwards.

the share performance has been exceedingly dull of late so it's good to see some cracking results, with strong positive reaction in a weak market .....
t/o approach would then put icing on the cake :-)


InterContinental Hotels Group Plc , one of the world's largest hoteliers, reported a 4 percent rise in yearly profit on Tuesday, boosted by strong demand across all its regions.

The company said it would return $1.5 billion to shareholders via a special dividend, following the sales of Le Grand InterContinental in Paris for 330 million euros and InterContinental Hong Kong for $938 million.

IHG, which runs over 5,000 hotels under brands such as Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn and InterContinental, reported operating profit of $680 million. Analysts were expecting $672 million according to a company-compiled consensus.

StockMarketWire.com
InterContinental Hotels Group reports solid growth in the six months to the end of June with underlying operating profits up 10% at $345m.

Chief executive Richard Solomons said: "We continue to execute our well-established strategy as we deliver consistent, high-quality growth and generate significant operating cash flows. We have had a good first half, delivering a 10% increase in underlying operating profit and an 11% increase in underlying EPS, underpinning our decision to increase the interim dividend by 9%.

"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."

Financial highlights:
Solid revenue growth driven by both revenue per available room and rooms

- Global comparable H1 RevPAR of 2.0%, led by rate up 1.4%. Q2 RevPAR up 2.5%, with growth in all regions.

- 3.6% net room growth year on year, with 17k room openings, up 8% year on year (with Q2 up over 40%).

- $11.9bn total gross revenue from hotels in IHG's system (up 1.7% year on year; up 4.0% CER).

High-quality business model, focused on disciplined execution, capital allocation and shareholder returns

- Group fee margin of 48.6%, up 2.9%pts (up 2.6%pts CER), aided by favourable phasing of costs along with scale benefits and continued focus on tight overhead control.

- Focused investment and asset recycling led to net capital expenditure of $83m (gross: $108m).

- $1.5bn returned to shareholders in May via a $6.329 per share special dividend with 5 for 6 share consolidation.

- 9.1% increase in interim dividend to 30.0c

as posted yesterday next door .....

IHG
i see from ST that a bid is likely to be on its way
it's a stock i watch but admit i haven't dabbled there for a month or two

StockMarketWire.com
InterContinental Hotels Group reports a solid performance in the third quarter, leveraging its global scale to drive 3.8% net system growth and 1.3% RevPAR growth.

Highlights:
- Global Q3 comparable RevPAR1 up 1.3%, and up 1.8% Q3 YTD

- Enhanced global scale: 7k rooms opened in Q3, increasing net system size 3.8% YoY to 754k rooms

- Building future growth: 19k rooms signed; highest for Q3 since 2008, taking pipeline to 230k rooms

Chief executive Richard Solomons said: "We delivered a solid performance in the third quarter, leveraging our global scale to drive 3.8% net system growth and 1.3% RevPAR growth.

"We remain focused on executing our commercial strategy to drive competitive advantage. This includes broadening the footprint of our global portfolio of brands, across which we drove our highest signings for eight years, including our best ever third quarter performance for Greater China.

"Enhancements to IHG Rewards Club, including the roll-out of our preferential member pricing initiative, 'Your Rate', continue to drive excellent results. This, together with our initiatives to utilise digital innovation to enhance all stages of the guest journey, means we will continue to generate more customised and informed interactions with our guests and deliver improved returns for owners.

"Looking ahead, while industry RevPAR growth has slowed, the fundamentals for the sector, and particularly for IHG, remain compelling. This, combined with our winning strategy and the strength of our cash generative business model, will enable us to drive sustainable growth into the future. Despite the uncertain environment in some markets, we remain confident in the outlook for the remainder of the year."

StockMarketWire.com
Intercontinental Hotels announced the online rental platform Airbnb moved to curb London users renting out property for more than 90 days a year.

It was argued that this may breach UK law without valid permits.

Barclays Capital today upgrades its investment rating on InterContinental Hotels Group PLC (LON:IHG) to overweight (from equal weight) and raised its price target to 4000p (from 3060p).

JP Morgan Cazenove today reaffirms its underweight investment rating on InterContinental Hotels Group PLC (LON:IHG) and raised its price target to 3415p (from 3265p).