InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), a leading hotel company, has announced a $350 million special dividend as well as an increase of 10 per cent in interim dividend on bumper rise in revenues and profits in the first half of the year.

Globally, IHG saw 3.7 per cent growth in RevPAR (revenue per available room) in the first half of the year, supporting a 7 per cent increase in revenue for the period and a 20 per cent increase in operating profit to $338 million.

In Asia, Middle East and Africa (AMEA), RevPAR was up 6.2 per cent (with 1.6 per cent rate growth) and second quarter RevPAR was up 6.8 per cent (with 2.3 per cent rate growth).

Southeast Asia and Japan reported high single digit RevPAR growth; the Middle East and Australasia both achieved mid-single digit RevPAR increases.

In the AMEA region, IHG has opened 2,000 rooms across six hotels in the first half of 2013, including an InterContinental hotel in Osaka, IHG’s first new-build InterContinental to open in Japan for over 15 years.

During the first six months of this year, IHG has also signed 10 hotels (3,000 rooms) in the region, up over 80 per cent year on year. New hotel signings include a Crowne Plaza hotel in Oman, Staybridge Suites hotels in Jeddah and the first Holiday Inn hotels for Doha and Mauritius.

“We have delivered a good performance in the first half, with our preferred brands driving RevPAR growth of 3.7 per cent, including 4 per cent in the second quarter,” said Richard Solomons, chief executive, IHG.


“Our global scale has allowed us to reinvest in the business whilst growing margins, resulting in solid underlying profit gains led by our Americas region and strong cash flows.

“We continue to strengthen our foundation for future growth, signing more than 200 hotels into our pipeline, a notable increase on H1 2012 reflecting our owners’ confidence in both IHG and the industry demand drivers.

“Our high quality pipeline, broad geographic spread and fee based model give us confidence in the outlook, despite the ongoing challenging economic conditions in some of our markets,” he added. – TradeArabia News Service