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.

InterContinental Hotels Group: Exane ups target from 2040p to 2060p retaining a neutral rating

Bid rumoured to have been made and rejected.

Mirabaud comment today:
"Surely the most important driver of a bid for IHG must be about a desire to buy growth. IHG has built a pipeline that is far larger than one would normally expect a business of its size to possess. IHG brands account for 5% of global industry room supply, but its pipeline is 13% of global planned new rooms, and strongly biased in favour of the USA and Greater China.
As investors, we all tend to focus too much on the short term, and so obsess over whether Chinese quarterly GDP will print at 7.5% or 7.8%. Large corporations however tend to obsess about the fact that China has a massive economy, growing far faster than anything they are used to back home, and which is often still virgin territory for Western consumer brands. IHG offers a commanding share of the Chinese upscale, branded hotel market, and has a big supply of new rooms to underpin that position.
It is pretty hard to argue that IHG is cheap on a stand-alone basis. The stock trades on 25x earnings and 15x EV/EBITDA on the current Bloomberg consensus forecasts. But it is now clear that the industry is very excited by the strategic value of that pipeline of rooms.
As global GDP forecasts pick up, we should also see improvements to occupancy and REVPAR. Hotel companies with rising REVPAR and occupancy are typically very good at generating upgrades, and consensus only has IHG’s top line compounding at 3.7% p.a. Any improvement on that is likely to be accompanied by meaningful earnings upgrades, which ought to keep IHG’s stock looking shiny. We will leave it on our best ideas list and keep our fingers crossed."

StockMarketWire.com
InterContinental Hotels reports its best quarterly revenue per available room performance for more than two years in the third quarter with growth in each of its four regions.

RevPAR was up 8.4% in the third quarter and 7.5% in the first nine months. In the US, RevPAR was up 8.7% in the third quarter and 7.5% in the first 9 months, the strongest quarterly US RevPAR growth in 8 years.

Third quarter RevPAR growth in the US continued to be driven by record levels of demand, with comparable occupancy rates 1.7% points above the previous third quarter peak, and 4.5% growth in average daily rate.

Trading in the quarter was led by higher leisure demand and increased groups business, particularly at our Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza hotels, where we outperformed the industry on a total RevPAR basis.

Chief executive Richard Solomons said: "We delivered our best quarterly RevPAR performance in over two years with growth in each of our four regions. Performance in the US was particularly strong where RevPAR was up 8.7%, demonstrating the excellent momentum in the business and the success of our winning strategy.

"We continue to focus on enhancing our scale position and developing our high quality pipeline, opening 8k rooms in the period, signing 16k rooms into the system, and delivering solid net system size growth of 2.7%.

"Our preferred brands reached several important milestones in the quarter. Staybridge Suites became the fastest growing brand in its segment to reach 200 open hotels, and Hotel Indigo opened its 60th hotel. InterContinental Hotels and Resorts reinforced its position as the largest global luxury hotel brand with record quarterly signings.

"Whilst some of our markets face heightened uncertainty and risks, we continue to see strong momentum in the business and remain encouraged by current trading and positive booking trends."

StockMarketWire.com
InterContinental Hotels Group has agreed to acquire Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants for $430m in cash.

IHG says Kimpton is the world's largest independent boutique hotel operator and a sophisticated food and beverage operator.

Kimpton is a fully asset-light business that manages 62 hotels in the most attractive cities and resorts in the US with a further 16 hotels in the pipeline. It operates 71 hotel-based destination restaurants and bars.

IHG says the acquisition makes it the clear market leader in the boutique segment, the fastest growing segment in the industry.

IHG chief executive Richard Solomons said: "Kimpton is a well-established and highly successful business that has built an industry leading position in the US. It has created a portfolio of world-class hotels and destination restaurants, and the distinctive and innovative Kimpton brand will fit perfectly into the IHG brand family. Adding Kimpton to our portfolio of preferred brands creates the world's largest boutique hotel business.

"The acquisition is another step in IHG's well-established asset-light strategy of investing in high-quality growth, building on a strong track record of developing iconic global brands. We will use our scale, network of owner relationships, and powerful digital platforms to accelerate Kimpton's growth both within the US and internationally.

"The hugely talented Kimpton team will continue to be led by Mike DeFrino, currently Kimpton's COO, and I am delighted to welcome all of Kimpton's associates and owners to the IHG family. The culture and values of both companies are well aligned and Kimpton will bring a wealth of expertise and specialist skills to IHG."

StockMarketWire.com
InterContinental Hotels has noted market speculation and states it is not considering a potential sale or merger of the company.

Berenberg today downgrades its investment rating on InterContinental Hotels Group PLC (LON:IHG) to hold (from buy) and raised its price target to 2850p (from 2750p).

the t/o story has been running for a while now, but leaving that side, i thought it looked reasonable value at 2547 so i bought a few

StockMarketWire.com
InterContinental Hotels Group reports strong results for the year to the end of December which, it said, were driven by 'disciplined execution of our winning strategy'.

Underlying revenues were up 8% at USD1,522m with underlying operating profits up 11% at USD650m.

The total dividend of 85.0c per share is up 10% on 2014.

Chief executive Richard Solomons said: "Our strong momentum in 2015 was driven by a clear strategy and disciplined execution. We delivered our highest room openings since 2009, our best signings since 2008, 11% underlying profit growth and 19% underlying EPS growth.

"Our high quality, fee based, business continues to generate significant operating cash flows following the completion of our major asset disposal programme. Reflecting this and our on-going focus on delivering shareholder value, we today announce a $1.5bn special dividend, which will take total funds returned since 2003 to $12bn. "We have strengthened our brand portfolio, adding Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants into the IHG family and accelerating signings across our mainstream and extended stay brands. Through effective online distribution management we grew our direct digital revenue more than any other channel, and building on our track record of innovation we are on course to begin the roll out of a next generation cloud based Guest Reservation System in 2017.

"Looking into the medium term, despite economic and political uncertainty in some markets, the prospects for the hotel industry remain good and the strength of our business model gives us the confidence to propose a 10% increase in total dividend for the year."

InterContinental Hotels Group also announced that non-executive directors, Jennifer Laing and Ying Yeh will be retiring from the board. Jill McDonald, a non-executive director of IHG, will be appointed to replace Laing as chairman of the corporate responsibility committee.

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).