By Anthony O. Goriainoff
InterContinental Hotels Group launched a share buyback program of up to $800 million after pretax profit and revenue rose last year.
The owner of the Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn hotel brands posted a pretax profit of $1.01 billion compared with $540 million the year before, while net profit jumped to $750 million from $375 million.
The FTSE-100 company said Tuesday that revenue rose to $4.62 billion from $3.89 billion, beating a consensus forecast of $4.60 billion, taken from FactSet and based on eight analysts’ estimates.
Revenue from reportable segments–the company’s preferred metric, which includes fee business and owned, leased and managed lease hotels–rose to $2.16 billion from $1.84 billion the year-prior. Company-compiled consensus was for $2.17 billion.
Operating profit from reportable segments was $1.02 billion compared with $828 million and company-compiled consensus of $1.01 billion.
Revenue per available room–a closely watched metric used in the hotel industry–grew 7.6% in the fourth quarter, and 16% for the full year.
The board declared a final dividend of 104 cents compared with 94.5 cents the year prior, taking the final dividend for the year to 152.3 cents.
Write to Anthony O. Goriainoff at anthony.orunagoriainoff@dowjones.com
